Entertainment - Wednesday, October 28, 2009 14:25 - 4 Comments
Historical Preservation, Internet Style
I have a hard time living in the 
present, and often spend hours thinking about how I will look back on everything happening now when I’m older and have grandchildren huddled about my hologram wheelchair in my robot house. I never said it was a realistic fantasy. Anyway, one of the things I think most about is dial-up internet and floppy disks and trying to make my own anime website when I was 10 on Geocities.
In a very timely fashion (Geocities is shutting down forever this month, and nerds everywhere are crying into their Domo-kun pillows), a new project has been born out of the Interwebs to immortalize these forgotten formats and fonts. Internet Archaeology, founded by a dude named Ryder Ripps, aims to preserve the spirit of the Internet we all grew up with by archiving old websites and such. Continue…
City - Wednesday, April 8, 2009 9:54 - 0 Comments
New York City Sells Gay Tourism
New York tourism officials announced a new campaign today to draw a specific demographic to the city: “The Rainbow Pilgrimage.” According to City Room, this $1.9 million initiative will consist of print ads, outdoor advertising abroad, online ads and more. The city hopes to draw tourists (specifically gay ones) to New York for this year’s gay pride celebration (June 20-28).
This year marks the 40 year anniversary of the riots at Stonewall, an incredibly significant jump-off point for the gay civil rights movement, and it is this anniversary that seems to be behind this innovative new approach. A new portion of the New York tourism website NYCGo details events designed to appeal to gay tourists and it also outlines important “must-see gay landmarks” that visitors should hit up during their trip.
Some find this commercialization of such a pivotal moment as Stonewall a bit jarring or ironic, as the city is now trying to profit off an event defined by the city’s aggression against LGBT freedoms. Others believe that it clearly signifies progress, because the city is now welcoming gays with open arms instead of, well, the complete opposite. Continue…
On Campus - Monday, April 6, 2009 8:40 - 1 Comment
Nicer Weather=Nicer Clothes
Andrea Vazques, Senior, Politics Major, Silver
There were no Street Scenes for two months, perhaps because the disgusting weather has brought fashion to its knees—torture by puffy coats and generic scarves. So when the weather warmed up to the satisfying 60s at the end of last week, this bit of sunshine was a warm welcome back to the season where you can’t hide under a parka.
City - Wednesday, March 4, 2009 16:56 - 1 Comment
Sully Sullenberg Is Hangin’ Around
Since the Hudson River plane crash, the entire event has been mostly reduced to a celebration of the plane’s captain and crew, in many ways rightfully. Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberg is this close to being a household name, including having his own Facebook fan page.
As a huge nerd, I much more appreciate what Scene Systems, an animation company, has done with all the news surrounding the crash. Go here to see a re-enactment of the entire event, including cute depictions of the unfortunately doomed geese.
The animation was painstakingly created with data taken mostly from news reports and eyewitnesses, an impressive feat. It also features recordings of the conversation between the air traffic controllers as they scramble to figure out a game plan. For those who were in New York at the time of the crash, or even saw it from their window (as a friend of mine did), this is a great clarification of what exactly went down that day.
