After Wednesday’s horrific collapse of the arched truss bridge over the Mississippi, it was natural for Philadelphians to wonder if their decrepit South Street Bridge is safe. The converted railroad bridge, built over the Schuylkill for the Centennial celebrations of 1876, has been shedding its concrete skin like someone with a bad sunburn. Trucks and buses weighing six tons or more were banned in January. And like the Interstate 35W bridge in Minnesota, the South Street Bridge has been tagged with the ominous federal designation “structurally deficient.” You can almost hear nervous officials bleating in unison for the long-planned $50 […]
SENATOR ARLEN SPECTER: “We Need To Find A Way To End The Tenure Of Attorney General Gonzales”
WASHINGTON — Senators in both parties concede they don’t have enough evidence to make a perjury charge stick against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. But that doesn’t mean they’re going to quit trying to pry him from office. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is considering asking the Justice Department’s inspector general to examine whether Gonzales’ answers to questions from lawmakers amount to misconduct. “I am deeply concerned about the seriousness of his misleading testimony and the pattern that has developed with regards to the attorney general’s testimony over the years,” Leahy said Thursday. “At the very least, I am […]
REAL TIME: Minnesota Bridge Collapsing
USA TODAY: Against the shock of a mighty span’s inexplicable fall — at rush hour, into the nation’s greatest river — bridge experts offer this reassurance: The same federally mandated inspections that show one-quarter of U.S. bridges to be “structurally deficient” or “functionally obsolete” also indicate they’re in very little danger of collapsing. Of course, that’s what the same experts would have said about the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis before it crashed down Wednesday. As rescue crews searched the Mississippi River on Thursday for what could be up to 30 more victims beyond the four confirmed dead, it was […]
SHOCKER: Aquafina Is People Tap Water!
The soft drink giant Pepsi has been forced to make an embarrassing admission — its best-selling Aquafina bottled water is nothing more than tap water. Last week Pepsi agreed to change the labels of Aquafina to indicate that the water comes from a public water source. Pepsi agreed to change its label under pressure from the advocacy group Corporate Accountability International which has been leading an increasingly successful campaign against bottled water.The environmental impact of the country’s obsession with bottled water has been staggering. Each day an estimated 60 million plastic water bottles are thrown away. Most are not recycled. The […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
NO SLEEP ‘TIL BROOKLYN: Beastie Boys, Festival Pier, Last Night [SLIDE SHOW] BY JONATHAN VALANIA So as promised, here’s a rough transcript of the Q&A at the Beasties press conference. The assembled press included Dan DeLuca from the Inquirer, Christian Hoard from Rolling Stone, some dude and dudette from Wonkavision, and dude from Gloucester County Times. (Note: We all sat around waiting about an hour for a.d. amorosi to show up — and when he finally did, he sat down for two minutes, checked his cell phone messages and then he left before the press conference even started! Now that […]
PAPERBOY: White Punks On Dope Guns Edition
BY AMY Z. QUINN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right — these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. Hey, we know how it is — so many words to read, so little time to surf for free porn. That’s why every week, PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you, freeing up […]
THE EARLY WORD: Monty Python Cyberpunk
Upcoming Author Events Summer 2007 William Gibson – Spook Country Thursday, August 16 (7:00 p.m.) FREE Few authors can be credited with birthing a genre, but with his science fiction novel Neuromancer, William Gibson created “cyberpunk.” Gibson says his new novel “is set ‘in the same universe,’ as Pattern Recognition… It takes place during the spring of 2006. One of the viewpoint characters is a young Cuban-Chinese immigrant, Russian-speaking, whose relatives comprise one of the smallest, tightest organized-crime families in the United States. Michael Palin Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years Thursday, September 6 (7:00 p.m.) FREE Michael Palin is known […]
ELTON JOHN: Shut Down The Internet!
POP legend Sir Elton John wants the internet CLOSED DOWN. He claims it is destroying good music, saying: “The internet has stopped people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff. Instead they sit at home and make their own records, which is sometimes OK but it doesn’t bode well for long-term artistic vision.” … “We’re talking about things that are going to change the world and change the way people listen to music and that’s not going to happen with people blogging on the internet. I mean, get out there, communicate. Hopefully the next movement in music […]
GAYBO EXTRA: For Queer Eyes Only*
Jonny McGovern The Gay Pimp makes a real messy queen. Can you find The Holland Boys in this video?? xo, Tommy * Seriously, just watching this could turn you gay. You have been warned.
All Of This Happened While You Were Sleeping
HELLO NASTY: Beastie Boy, Festival Pier, Tonight
GAMBLOR: Gaming Chair Quits After Picking SugarHouse, Takes Cushy Job At Law Firm That Represents SugarHouse — How Is This Legal?
HARRISBURG, Pa. – Tad Decker, who oversaw the birth of the state’s slot machine industry as the first chairman of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, said Wednesday he is leaving the job after one term to return to his former law firm. Decker, 61, will step down Aug. 9 to take over as president and chief executive officer of Philadelphia-based Cozen O’Connor. Decker was the firm’s managing partner three years ago when Rendell, his college pal, appointed him chairman of the fledgling agency. Cozen O’Connor is no stranger to the state’s gambling industry: The firm is representing two slots casino […]
This Is Darfur On Your Constitution Center — Literally
The misery and brutality of Darfur, that most unhappy region in western Sudan, was splashed across the walls of the Constitution Center Monday night, accompanied by eerie, mournful Sudanese traditional music. … The event drew in handfuls of curious passersby and marked the final day of the DARFUR/DARFUR exhibition at the center. DARFUR/DARFUR is a digitally projected photography exhibition depicting the ongoing genocide in Darfur, Sudan. Every night for the past week images from internationally acclaimed photojournalists were projected on the front facade of the National Constitution Center and on the two west facades on 6th Street. [via DIGPHILLY]
ILL COMMUNICATION: Dear Beastie Boys…
I am a student at a small Midwestern college, I never thought the letters to the Penthouse Forum were true until…Heh-heh. Um, you weren’t supposed to see that. In other news, Phawker has been invited to a special Beastie Boys press conference tonight at the Festival Pier in advance of next week’s tonight’s concert. And in the interest of making New Media your bitch work FOR you, dear readers, WE ARE GONNA LET YOU ASK THE BEASTIE BOYS ANYTHING YOU WANT. How many times have you gotten into an argument with your buds about the Beastie Boys — and been, […]