Edward H. Rulloff, Victorian New York’s Evil Genius
Edward H. Rulloff's brain on display at Cornell.
E. H. Freeman’s biography of the criminal-scholar Edward H. Rulloff is finally back in print. Victorian Gothic looks at his bizarre life and obsession with philology:
Visitors to Cornell University’s psychology department would be hard pressed to overlook the eight pickled brains, preserved in heavy glass jars, which are proudly showcased on the second floor of Uris Hall. A small sample of the 122 specimens in the university’s Wilder Brain Collection, each belongs to a notable scholar or learned individual whose think-meat was once deemed worthy of anatomical examination.
One of these brains, however, is not like the others. If the brain of Edward H. Rulloff, a.k.a. Professor Leurio, were able to come alive, glowing and pulsating as it issued angry, murderous commands to you from inside your head, it would.
Rulloff was a criminal genius who left no question of how he should like to be remembered.…
Welcome to Surveillance Hell: Kings Point, New York
Here’s a direct quote from the mayor of this town: “Crime will always be out there,” [Mayor Michael] Kalnick said. “Do you wait for it to happen? I think no.” Emily C. Dooley writes in Newsday:
The 3.3-square-mile North Shore enclave of Kings Point is launching a far-reaching surveillance network that can compare the license plate of every car going into the village against federal and state crime databases such as most-wanted lists, stolen vehicle alerts and suspected terrorist files.
When the project is completed, 44 cameras will monitor 19 entrances into the village in what may be one of the most extensive municipal tracking programs anywhere.
The number of cameras equals about one for every 120 people in the village of 5,305 people. Kings Point, a community of million-dollar homes, sits on the Great Neck peninsula, surrounded on three sides by water.
In 2010, 19 property crimes and one violent crime were reported in…
NYC Advertisment Featuring Photoshopped 9/11 Firefighter Pulled
Jamie Schram writes in the New York Post:
An ad agency for a law firm specializing in 9/11 lawsuits said today it is pulling the controversial posters after it was revealed that the somber, soot-smeared FDNY firefighter holding an image of the charred remains of the World Trade Center was not actually at Ground Zero.
“We issue a sincere and deep apology to Firefighter [Robert] Keiley and this ad will not run again,” said John Barker, president of the Barker/DZP ad agency.
The Post reported today that Keiley — who joined New York’s Bravest only in 2004 — was working as a model when he posed for what he thought would be used for a run-of-the-mill fire-prevention ad.
He appeared in generic firefighter gear and gripped a helmet for the shot — not the photo of the destroyed Twin Towers that was “put” into his hands with Photoshop software for the Worby Groner Edelman…
The Fitness Revolution And America’s Class Struggle
Mickey Z
Some 35 years ago—during the pre-Stairmaster days of yore when your standard gym looked more like a cave than Studio 54—Arnold may have already been Mr. Olympia several times over but there probably weren’t more than a couple of dozen people who could pronounce “Schwarzenegger” on the first try.
Let’s face it, when Bobby Fischer was the nation’s athletic ideal, it was clearly time for a fitness revolution.
Fast-forward to the twenty-first century and a health club on every corner. This time around the revolution was televised and joining a gym has become a post-modern rite of passage. You plunk down the plastic and get introduced to a “personal trainer.”
Welcome to my world…
An upscale health club is one place where the different classes meet and mingle. Any personal trainer worth his or her supplements craves an elite clientele. Conversely, their well-heeled customers dream of wielding their buff buns and ripped deltoids…
Daugther Of Malcolm X Arrested
Photo: Ed Ford, World Telegram Staff Photographer
How far does the apple fall from the tree? Malcolm X fought for civil rights, now his daughter is fighting the New York Civil Court. Huffington Post reports:
The daughter of Malcolm X was being held in a North Carolina jail and could be extradited to New York to face charges on several outstanding warrants, authorities said Monday.
Malikah Shabazz was arrested Friday night after authorities responded to a call to a Mars Hill home, said Chief Deputy Michael Garrison of the Madison County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators found that the 45-year-old had several outstanding warrants from Queens, N.Y., that include charges for grand larceny, forgery and identity theft.
Garrison and her lawyer, Sean Devereux, said Shabazz is the daughter of slain civil rights leader Malcolm X, who is also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. She was born months after Malcolm X was assassinated exactly 46 years ago Monday.
[Continues at…
New York Publishes Official Apocalypse Survival Plan
Do the civil servants who run New York State’s legal and public health bureaucracy know something the rest of us don’t? Just in time for the next popular end times date in 2012, the state has published a doomsday book of sorts. William Glaberson analyzes its contents for the New York Times:
Major disasters like terrorist attacks and mass epidemics raise confounding issues for rescuers, doctors and government officials. They also pose bewildering legal questions, including some that may be painful to consider, like how the courts would decide who gets life-saving medicine if there are more victims than supplies.
But courts, like fire departments and homicide detectives, exist in part for gruesome what-ifs. So this month, an official state legal manual was published in New York to serve as a guide for judges and lawyers who could face grim questions in another terrorist attack, a major radiological or chemical contamination or a…
Marijuana Arrests in New York City Skyrocket
Alice Speri writes in the NY Times’ City Room:
More people were arrested last year in New York City on charges of marijuana possession than during the entire 19-year period from 1978 to 1996, according to an analysis released this morning by the Drug Policy Alliance.
Last year, the sixth year in a row that marijuana possession arrests increased, 50,383 people were arrested, according to a report recently released by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services and obtained by the policy alliance, which advocates for reform of drug laws.
The figure adds up to 140 arrests a day, making marijuana possession the leading reason for arrest in the city, and represents an 8 percent increase over 2009 and a 69 percent increase since 2005, the alliance reported in a statement issued Thursday.
From 1978 to 1996, there were 49,326 marijuana possession arrests, according to an analysis for the alliance done by Harry…
New Yorkers Welcome Planned Terror Attacks On Wall Street Banks
I know I should be horrified by the comments to this New York Post story claiming that the FBI and NYPD are advising Wall Street banks that terrorists are planning to attack them, but on the other hand it does show just how despised the bankers are because of the never-ending fallout from their self-induced financial crisis. Here are some particularly choice examples:
sadtruth
02/01/2011 1:32 PM
Planning attacks against major wall street executives? When? Do they need housing and accommodations?Cut Off The Freeloaders
02/01/2011 1:25 PM
Shouldn’t we be referring to them as “superheroes” instead of terrorists? ANyone who has any dealing with US banks in the last few years would agree Im sure. The heads of US banks are the biggest criminal empire known to man.TommyNYC
02/01/2011 10:32 AM
This will be the first terrorist attack sanctioned by the american taxpayers!! Take the executives but leave the buildings please!!actressdiva
02/01/2011 7:57 AM
good thing all the records of…
How An RC Airplane Buzzed the Statue of Liberty, With No Arrests (Video)
The video speaks for itself:
Bible Spouting, Freemason Sword-Wielding ‘Ugly Betty’ Actor Kills His Own Mother
Truly horrific, and the spouting of Bible verses and references to Freemasonry just makes it more disturbing. Via the New York Post:
A crazed bit actor wielding an ornate Freemason sword hacked his mother to death early yesterday in their Brooklyn apartment while screaming out Bible passages and Masonic references, police and witnesses said.
“Repent! Repent! Repent!” Michael Brea, screamed at his 55-year-old mother, Yannick, during his bizarre meltdown and the subsequent bloodbath at their Prospect Heights apartment, neighbors said.
Brea, 31, who had roles in Ugly Betty and the movie Step Up 3D, was heard repeatedly through the door shouting about the “architect of the universe,” a term used by Freemasons to refer to a supreme being. Longtime family friend Sylvan Benoit confirmed that Brea was a member of the Freemasons and had been to a meeting earlier in the evening.
The Masonic sword was 3-feet long and meant for ceremonial use, police sources…
NYPD To Start Iris Scanning Suspects And Prisoners
Will iris scans replace the fingerprint? With the many ways someone can change their identity, NYPD is taking a step to insure that their prisoners remain the same person from booking to the arraignment. From DNAinfo:
The NYPD implemented a new identification procedure this week – using digital eye scans to prevent prisoners from assuming false identities during arraignment.
The new practice, which identifies prisoners by taking high-resolution pictures of their irises, the colored part of the eye, began on Monday at Manhattan Central Booking and is expected to expand to other boroughs, the NYPD confirmed Tuesday.
The eye scans are performed first during the booking process and again before the arraignment to confirm that it’s the same person, according to police.
While NYPD spokesman Paul Browne told the New York Times that the department did not know how many people had fallen through the cracks by pretending to be different people at their arraignments, there…
Building What? 9/11 Building 7 TV Ad Now Airing in New York
Via BuildingWhat.org:
The “BuildingWhat?” TV ad will air 350+ times from November 2 through November 10 and is estimated to be seen by millions of viewers in the New York Metropolitan Area, reaching core target audiences multiple times.
The ad will appear on thirteen channels including MSNBC, CNN, Comedy Central, HGTV, Logo TV, Bio TV, Versus TV, MSG, Sports NY, VH1, HLN, CNBC and Bravo.
New York’s ‘Rent is Too Damn High’ Party Official Statement (Video)
Fresh from the recent New York State gubernatorial debate, Jimmy McMillan of the Rent is Too Damn High Party speaks the truth.
Did New Yorkers See UFOs Hovering Overhead?
In parts of Manhattan yesterday, people thronged the streets, straining to see a cluster of mysterious shiny objects in the sky. Are the hovering figures UFOs? It would be fitting, as a retired NORAD officer had predicted that UFOs would be spotted overhead on October 13. The Daily News took note:
A mysterious shiny object floating high over Manhattan’s West Side set off a flurry of reports and wild speculation Wednesday that a UFO was flying over the city.
Police and the FAA said they began getting flooded with calls starting at 1:30 p.m. from people reporting a silvery object hovering high over Chelsea.
Law enforcement sources said they believed the object was likely some sort of balloon, but as of late Wednesday they had not confirmed exactly what it is.
A Daily News reporter could see a tiny, silver dot floating approximately 5,000 feet above 23th St. and Eighth Ave., where dozens of people…
Meet Pamela Geller, New York’s Number 1 Islamophobe
Pamela Geller with former IDF chief of staff, Moshe Ya'alon. Photo: P. Geller (CC)
Quite why the New York Times thinks it should give hate merchant Pamela Geller such a high profile, massive write up is mystifying … unless the Times itself is conforming to an unfortunate stereotype:
Pamela Geller’s apartment, in the fashion of the blogosphere, doubles as her office. It is a modern full-floor unit in a high-rise on the East Side of Manhattan that could belong to a socialite or the editor of a lifestyle magazine. There is ample light and a tasteful lack of clutter. The kitchen appliances are made of brushed steel; the countertops are slate. In the earth-toned living room hangs a painting, in vibrant colors, of a woman in a swimsuit.
It is in this genteel setting that Ms. Geller, 52 and a single mother of four, wakes each morning shortly after 7, switches on her laptop…
Bronx Man Finds 3-Foot-Long Snake on His Toilet Seat
Get These Motherfucking Snakes Off My Motherfucking Toilet! Kevin Deutsch and Leo Standora report in the Daily News:
A Bronx man got the scare of his life last night when he went into his bathroom, turned on the light and found a 3-foot snake comfortably coiled on the toilet seat.
“There’s a giant snake on my toilet,” he told cops who arrived at his apartment on White Plains Road in Soundview.
The cops corralled the slithery visitor, which turned out to be a harmless corn snake, bagged it and turned it over to the ASPCA.
The shaken man told cops the reptile wasn’t his pet and probably had made its way into his bathroom through the plumbing.
“Look, anytime you walk into your bathroom and find a big snake staring you in the eye, it’s going to spook you,” said one officer.
“We’ve got enough problems here with bugs and mice. Now there’s snakes coming up through our toilets,” she said. “That’s just scary.”
Bed Bug Blaster: Get Them Before They Get You
Call it the Summer of Bed Bugs in New York City: seems like they have been popping up everywhere around here from Victoria’s Secret to the AMC movie theater in Times Square.
If you’ve or your loved ones have been a victim of our new Bed Bug Overlords, get some virtual payback with this Bed Bug Blaster game:
Don’t become a bed bug late-night snack! If they can infect GE executives are any of us safe?
8.4 Million New Yorkers Suddenly Realize New York City Is A Horrible Place To Live
“We’re getting the hell out of this sewer,” entire populace reports … The Onion nails it again. As if the mutant bedbug plague wasn’t bad enough. Via The Onion:
NEW YORK—At 4:32 p.m. Tuesday, every single resident of New York City decided to evacuate the famed metropolis, having realized it was nothing more than a massive, trash-ridden hellhole that slowly sucks the life out of every one of its inhabitants.
With audible murmurs of “This is no way to live,” “What the hell am I doing here — I hate it here,” and “Fuck this place. Fuck this horrible place,” all 8.4 million citizens in each of the five boroughs packed up their belongings and told reporters they would rather blow their brains out with a shotgun than spend another waking moment in this festering cesspool of filth and scum and sadness.
By 5:15 p.m. there was gridlock traffic on the outbound sides…
What Else Is Built In The Shadow Of Ground Zero?
Is Lower Manhattan hallowed ground? The blog History Eraser Button presents photos of the other businesses and organizations located directly by the World Trade Center site, as near as the proposed “Ground Zero mosque” is slated to be.
