Gone Fishing
Dear slimeball terrorists,
I'm off to Montauk to celebrate my wedding anniversary. Please don't blow up my city while I'm gone.
Thanks,
Amy
- posted by Amy @ 5/24/2002 09:19:00 AM

 

The Twinkie Prosecution
Who cares about the Twinkie Defense when you can have the Twinkie Prosecution? NY blogging superstar Megan McArdle of Live from the WTC has the lead story in Salon today (link courtesy mystery superstar A. Beam.) Megan (who was discovered by Salon via her blog) writes about attorneys who hope to sue the fast-food industry for obesity the same way tobacco companies have been sued for causing cancers and other bad things. She makes the point, though, that smoker plaintiffs could easily target one tobacco company since they normally smoked only one brand their whole life. However, it will be harder to sue KFC, since KFC could say the defendant got even fatter from eating Big-Macs, pizza, Chupitas, Doritos and creamy double-chocolate cake with truffled hazelnut filling. Mmmmm.
- posted by Amy @ 5/24/2002 09:07:00 AM

 

Stealing from the Greedy
Do you think e-mail hoaxers sell their list of gullible souls to other evil e-mail hoaxers who hope to bank on someone's greed and stupidity? (Naw, they wouldn't do that! That would be unethical.) I got another one in my in box today. It's even worse than the one from Nigeria, I think, since this banker says he's trying to steal $7 million from a dead Saudi and his own country of Lagos.

To: hammer@naisp.net
Date: Thu, 23 May 2002 21:20:21 -0700
From: "first city bank plc first city bank plc"
Reply-to: hhansonamadi_fcb@lycos.com
Subject: MONEY TRANSFER NOTIFICATION
Organization: Lycos Mail (http://www.mail.lycos.com:80)
FROM:HANSON AMADI
FIRST CITY BANK(FCB)
35 RASHEED AMINU STREET LAGOS.

DEAR SIR,
I CRAVE YOUR INDULGENCE TO MAKE THIS INTIAL CONTACT AS I WRITE THIS LETTER OF ASSISTANCE WITH A GREAT SENSE OF HONOR AND RESPONSIBILITY. THE DECISION TO WRITE TO YOU WAS ARRIVED AT AFTER A CRITICAL CONSIDERATION OF YOUR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENTS IN YOUR FIELD OFOPERATION.
I AM THE BRANCH MANAGER OF THE ABOVE NAMED BANK,FOLLOWING THE RECENT
BOMB EXPLOSINS THAT ROCKED LAGOS NIGERIA IN WHICH MANY LIVES WERE LOST.I DISCOVERED THAT ONE OF OUR CUSTOMERS A SAUDI NATIONALE WAS ONE OF THE PEOPLE WHO DIED IN THE BOMB EXPLOSIONS. UNTIL HIS DEATH HE HAD A CURRENT ACCOUNT WITH OUR BRANCH AND IN IT WAS $7,235,000USD. ON FURTHER ENQUIRY I DISCOVERED THAT HE DIED WITH ALL THE MEMEBERS OF HIS FAMILY LEAVING NO ONE TO CLAIM THE MONEY IN HIS ACCOUNT.
ALL I REQUIRE IS THAT YOU SEND IN YOUR NAME AND ACCOUNT NUMBER FOR ME
TO TRANSFER THE MONEY INTO AS THE NEXT OF KIN /BENEFICIARY. ON GETTING YOUR DETAILS I WILL EFFECT THE NECCESSARY DOCUMENTS THAT WILL ENABLE THE TRANSFER OF THE MONEY INTO YOUR ACCOUNT. I WILL ON THE SMOOTHG TRANSFER OF THE MONEY INTO YOUR GIVE YOU AS THE ACCOUNT THE OWNER %25 OF THE TOTAL SUM TRANSFERED .
AFTER THE MONEY MAY HAVE HIT YOUR ACCOUNT I WILL THEN APPLY FOR VACATION IN MY BANK TO ENABLE ME COLLECT MY OWN SHARE OF THE MONEY. THE ARRANGEMENT IS RISK FREE SINCE I AM THE BRANCH MANAGER OF WHERE HE OPERATED THIS ACCOUNT,MORESO I WILL USE MY CONNECTION TO FACILITATE THE TRANSFER WITHIN 5WORKING DAYS OF GETTING THE DETAILSFROM YOU.
DO CONTACT ME WHERE YOU ARE INTERESTED AS IT WILL BE OF MUTIUAL BENEFIT TO BOTH OF US BECAUSE IF THE MONEY IS NOT CLAIMED IT WILL GO INTO THE GOVERNMENTS ACCOUNT.
YOU CAN ALSO MDISREGARD THIS MESSAGE WHERE YOU ARE NOT INTRESTED. HOPING TO HEAR FROM YOU AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
BEST REGARDS
DR HANSON AMADI

- posted by Amy @ 5/24/2002 08:58:00 AM

 

Jets Over NYC
I was pretending I wasn't worried about this latest NYC terror warning, but I had a good scare yesterday. We live two blocks in from the Hudson River and through our kitchen window, we routinely see commercial airliners heading up the river for the airports as well as helicopters taking sightseers down toward Ground Zero. We still even get the occasional military helicopter heading down there. It took me a long time to get used to the military ones - they're a lot louder than the others.

Yesterday was a gorgeous day without a cloud in the sky. The talking heads on TV were even comparing it to the weather on the morning of Sept. 11. Just before 2:30 in the afternoon, I heard a noise outside that was far, far louder than those military helicopters. I looked out the kitchen window and there were two military planes that looked like jet fighters. They were flying incredibly low - lower than the usual helicopters - up the Hudson. I watched them as long as I could see them, looked at CNN, then headed to the bedroom to check the city skyline. The Empire State Building, Chrysler, everything was fine. No smoke, no booms, nobody in the street looking up or looking worried. I came back to the TV, and what do you know, there were my two planes live on CNN. And they were talking about Fleet Week. No emergency, just more military coming in to celebrate.

I felt pretty foolish for getting worried. But I was also relieved that my petty little worries are important enough to be carried live on CNN.
- posted by Amy @ 5/23/2002 10:09:00 AM

 

Headlines vs. Story
The USA Today daily briefing e-mail has had a few bad errors in their lead stories lately. Last week, they had a story about a WTC stairwell that saved the lives of 16 people, but the e-mail said it was only six. Today, the e-mail subhead on the Levy story says thus: "Gruesome discovery in the woods in Washington, D.C., is likely to launch extensive, long search for the ex-intern's killer." Do they have an exclusive, I wonder? No, just a bad headline. The story explains she wasn't necessarily killed. "Remaining to be learned are how she died - murder, suicide or even natural causes - and where the death took place."

Though I suppose it's unfair to single out USA Today on the Levy story. Just how many reporters yesterday referred to a "shallow grave" even thought the DC police chief said yesterday they have yet to find one?
- posted by Amy @ 5/23/2002 10:07:00 AM

 

Growing Pains of Too Much Info on the Net
The Washington Post has an interesting story about a Website that is selling police records to the general public. The site, rapsheets.com, can delve into the background of your babysitter, neighbor, co-worker, teacher, arch-enemy or anyone else for $5.95 per search.

Sure, this stuff is supposed to be public information, and I'm all for public information, but there are some times it creates unintended problems. There was a time when everyone's DMV information was available to anyone - then there was the murder of Rebecca Schaeffer, whose stalker located her home address thanks to the DMV records. This past December, another Website was persuaded by public pressure to stop selling birth certificates online.

There are problems with making police reports widely available. As the Washington Post points out, the reports do not always contain accurate information. The story doesn't mention this next point, but it occurs to me that the reports would also include information that the police and reporters now usually choose to leave out of general circulation - such as the identity of the victims of sexual assault.

And one other thought, I would assume that the cops themselves aren't going to be too keen on this. I've talked to a number of cops as a reporter and I can't tell you how many arguments I've gotten into trying to get a physical copy of a police report.

I would expect there are more quandaries to come. We love the access of the information highway, but when it comes to our own private lives hanging out, I suspect most people wouldn't want their own vitals hanging out.
» MORE GENEALOGY VS. PRIVACY
» WEB SITE REMOVES BIRTH RECORDS
» BORN IN CALIF? THEY'VE GOT YOUR NUMBERS
- posted by Amy @ 5/23/2002 08:58:00 AM

 

What, Me Worry?
When I got back to the apartment this afternoon, I signed on the computer and saw this new New York-specific terror warning. So I turned on the TV to see what they were saying. The local ABC station was doing a long report on why people double park in New York. So much for breaking news. (The NY Times site, by the way, was using the AP story until about 6 p.m.)

Only in the past few weeks did I realize I was thinking about terrorism in New York the way I thought about earthquakes in California. You know the Big One will hit someday, but you learn to stop worrying about it every day. But then there's a cluster of little quakes on the same fault over a couple days, and you start thinking about the status of your emergency preparedness kit, if you have spare cash on hand, gas in the car and the like.

So today's warning, along with the more general ones in the past few days and new anthrax at the World Bank, it starts to feel like a little earthquake cluster. The good thing is that I lived through enough of those quake clusters to know it doesn't always mean something big is on the horizon.
- posted by Amy @ 5/21/2002 06:02:00 PM

 

Another Take on 'Free Content'

"If you bought this paper at a store or if it was delivered to your door, you have received a newspaper that was stolen. Please go back where you bought it and demand your money back!! Please call me with any info at 212-594-6397"

-- Statement stamped in red ink (and all caps) on the front page of all the New York Times sold from coin racks in my neighborhood during the past couple weeks.

If you arrived at this page from MattWelch.com looking to find my rant about the crime in my neighborhood, you can scroll down for the post, or use this link.
- posted by Amy @ 5/20/2002 09:00:00 AM

 

Cooperative but Undistinguished
The search engines have been sending me traffic due to this post about the Nigerian scam e-mail. I got a funny e-mail recently from a reader in Detroit who one-upped me by pointing out that I merely received the message because I am a "potentially cooperative person." But he writes: "Without any false modesty I want it on record that I got the same mailing, but it was sent to me because I am 'a distinguished member of the bar.'"

So if the Nigerian e-mailer got his name from a list of attorneys, I wonder what list characterized me as a cooperative person? New York bloggers? Americans who lived in Czechoslovakia when it was still called Czechoslovakia? People who gave money to Amnesty International more than a decade ago and have since received at least 500 mailings asking for more? Journalists who think it's OK to admit they read Matt Drudge? Oh, so many possibilities.
- posted by Amy @ 5/19/2002 09:59:00 AM