.... update you on yesterday's posts.
Let's take it from the top (in more ways than one):
Times Square to Explode Tonight
Didn't happen.
"Dubai New Year fireworks kick off while nearby tower blazes" by Jon Gambrell Associated Press January 01, 2016
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A 63-story luxury hotel was engulfed in flames as a massive New Year’s fireworks display kicked off at the world’s tallest skyscraper nearby, while tens of thousands of people whistled and cheered at early Friday’s pyrotechnics.
Strange juxtaposition there.
Just minutes before fireworks began, large explosions could be heard from inside the burning building, which was cloaked in thick black smoke. Other blasts followed later during the night. It was not clear what caused them.
Did it fall into its own footprint yet?
About 1 million people had been expected to gather around the Burj Khalifa skyscraper to watch the fireworks. Dubai’s economy depends on tourism, and New Year’s is one of the busiest seasons, drawing people from around the world to watch the fireworks that the emirate puts on at the world’s tallest tower, as well as at the sail-shaped Burj Al Arab and over a manmade palm-shaped island.
Organizers had installed 400,000 LED lights on the Burj Khalifa and used some 1.6 tons of fireworks for the seven-minute extravaganza. Two years ago on New Year’s, Dubai broke the world record for the largest fireworks display.
The fire engulfed the Address Downtown, one of the most upscale hotels and residences in Dubai, which was likely to have been packed with people because of its clear view of the 2,717-foot Burj Khalifa and the Middle East’s largest mall, the Dubai Mall.
It was not immediately clear what caused the fire, which ran up the 63-story building. The Address, 991 feet tall, has 626 luxury apartments and 196 hotel rooms, according to Skyscraper Center, which tracks such buildings.
Dubai’s Media Office wrote on its Twitter account that four teams of firefighters worked to put out the blaze. They said the fire appeared to have originated on a 20th floor terrace, though witnesses who saw the blaze start said they believed it began on the ground floor. No one offered a cause for the fire.
How long did it take?
The fire broke out around 9:30 p.m., about 2½ hours before the midnight fireworks display was set to begin. To manage the crowds, police had closed some roads and some metro stations before the fire broke out.
The Dubai Media Office said that Dubai’s tourism department would provide guests evacuated from the building with other accommodations.
Nearly an hour after the fire began, some onlookers began to leave while others stood, pressed against crowd barricades, to watch the blaze.
?????????
That's ‘‘suspicious.’’ What if collapsed? All the dust and debris....
Girlie Omilda, a Filipina who works in the aviation industry in Dubai, said she was glad to have seen the fireworks, even as the tower continued to burn. She, too, was concerned about threats from extremists like the Islamic State group. She said Dubai’s large expatriate, non-Muslim population made the city a tempting target.
‘‘Sometimes it makes me feel unsafe,’’ she said.
They the ones that started the fire?
Zeina Mandour, 35, who was staying with a relative in an apartment on the 39th floor, said in a phone interview that she heard an explosion around 9:50 p.m. When she looked out the window, she saw black smoke and flames. She could feel the heat from inside the apartment, she said.
Mandour said she and her family dashed out of the apartment and began knocking on neighbors’ doors and shouting for everyone to leave. As her family and other people made their way down the stairs — the group included a pregnant woman and a person in a wheelchair who had to be helped by security guards — the building’s fire alarm sounded, she said.
“We’re tired and stressed,” she said....
Me, too!
--more--"
Why didn't the article come with photo I saw in print?
"N.Y. ex-con charged with planning New Year’s Eve bar attack" Associated Press December 31, 2015
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — An ex-con seeking to prove he was worthy of joining the Islamic State group planned to carry out a New Year’s Eve attack at an upstate New York bar using a machete and knives provided by an FBI informant, federal authorities announced Thursday.
It's another PATSY PLOT SET-UP!!
Emanuel Lutchman, 25, of Rochester, was charged with attempting to provide material support to terrorists, prosecutors said. Officials said he was snared in an FBI sting involving three paid informants.
Your tax dollars at work, folks. Being used to force fear and mind-manipulating propaganda narratives upon you -- constantly.
Lutchman was arrested Wednesday. Steven Slawinski, his federal defender, declined to comment on the charges.
He's in on the charade.
Lutchman is a self-professed convert to Islam who claimed to receive direction from an overseas IS member and planned to carry out an attack at a bar-restaurant in Rochester on Thursday, authorities wrote in court papers. The name of the business wasn’t released.
I'll explain the italics in a second; meanwhile, what we have here is another Jewish convert to radical Islam, huh?
According to the FBI, Lutchman and an informant went to a Walmart to buy knives, a machete, ski masks and plastic cable ties for the attack. Lutchman had no money, so the informant paid $40 for the items, according to the complaint filed in federal court in Rochester.
OMG!!
Where print ended and web added.
Lutchman was described in court papers as having a criminal history stretching back a decade, including a 2006 robbery conviction that led to a five-year prison stint and arrests for what was described as ‘‘mental hygiene’’ issues.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo told Time Warner Cable News that officials believe Lutchman became a Muslim while serving his sentence at Wyoming Correctional Facility in western New York.
The plot underscores the threat IS poses ‘‘even in upstate New York but demonstrates our determination to immediately stop any who would cause harm in its name,’’ said U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul Jr.
Uh-huh.
The FBI said Lutchman has been communicating with three of its confidential sources since November in conversations that were sometimes recorded. During those conversations, Lutchman expressed strong support of the Islamic State and a desire to join it in Syria, according to a criminal complaint.
For three years I was told they couldn't keep track of these guys, now I'm told to accept a flood of refugees where self-created terrorists like this guy could be infiltrating and instigating -- like his FBI case handlers here!
In recent days, Lutchman told one of the informants that he had communicated with a ‘‘brother’’ in the Islamic State overseas, the FBI said.
Must be an idiot then. Doesn't he read the papers? The telecoms and government are sweeping all that up. Creating it all, then sweeping it up along with the rest of the stuff. Telling us they are keeping an eye on security -- until that unforeseen event slips through, yup!
During online communications last week, the person overseas said Lutchman would have to prove to the group that he was one of them by praying regularly and by planning an ‘‘operation’’ on New Year’s Eve, Lutchman told the informant, according to the FBI.
Was he really overseas, or just another FBI informant in an office?!!!
According to court papers, the overseas individual told Lutchman he was ‘‘behind enemy lines’’ and that Lutchman was the closest person to their most hated enemy: the United States.
OMG!
After Lutchman told the overseas individual he hates it in the U.S. and was ready to ‘‘give everything up’’ to join the Islamic State, the individual wrote online to Lutchman: ‘‘For now do wat u can over there,’’ the complaint said.
Funny. I love may country and am doing everything I can to save it. Why do you think I'm doing this?
On Sunday, Lutchman sent a message to one of the FBI’s confidential sources, including an audio recording in which Lutchman swore allegiance to the Islamic State and its leader, the FBI said.
It was the second time in the past 17 months that a man in Rochester has been arrested on terror charges related to IS. In May 2014, Yemen-born pizza shop owner Mufid Elfgeeh was arrested after buying two handguns and silencers that investigators say he planned to use to kill returning U.S. soldiers. He pleaded guilty Dec. 17 to attempting to support a terrorist organization and is scheduled for sentencing in March.
In the New Year’s Eve plot, the FBI said Lutchman confirmed the bar-restaurant as the target after driving past it Monday night with one of the informants.
‘‘I will take a life, I don’t have a problem with that,’’ the court papers quoted Lutchman as saying.
I suppose I would in an instinctual moment of defense, but beyond that no.
Unfortunately, too many of our leaders feel the same way as Lutchman!
--more--"
Thankfully, he was neutered by the FBI.
I resolve to start laughing at this stuff rather than swearing and get angry.
Also see: UMass Amherst student killed in fall from New York hotel
There seems to be some dispute about his age in print. Thank God he wasn't a terrorist.
Meanwhile, up here:
"Thousands of spectators at First Night Boston, as the celebration is officially known, were greeted by enhanced security. There were no reports of arrests as of 11 p.m. Thursday, a police spokesman said. Earlier in the day, police had swiftly checked out a report of a suspicious package left just off Copley Square, at Boylston and Dartmouth streets, but they said the briefcase did not contain explosives."
Pfffft!
And you won't see any more of them after that as everyone had a wonderful, wonderful time. Was quite a party.
"Obama lets Seinfeld sit in the back seat of the presidential limo, a Cadillac that Obama refers to as ‘‘the beast.’’ Obama says being able to call a nuclear submarine from the car is a cool feature, plus it has seat warmers. At one point, Seinfeld asks how many world leaders are just completely ‘‘out of their minds?’’ ‘‘A pretty sizable percentage,’’ Obama estimates. The White House press office noted the show’s release as the president was vacationing in Hawaii. Obama relishes the thought of some anonymity."
As his government violates ours, and he's included in that group in my eyes. Glad he has good security even if there are homeless in Connecticut.
And is it just me, or is Seinfeld the spitting image of the man?
"A woman injured in a fatal crash involving Caitlyn Jenner has settled her lawsuit against the reality TV star. Los Angeles court records filed this month by Jenner’s lawyer show that Jessica Steindorff settled her case. The court papers do not indicate terms of the settlement. Attorneys for both sides did not immediately return calls and messages seeking comment. Steindorff had sought unspecified damages against the 66-year-old Jenner for the Feb. 7 crash on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. One woman was killed and several other people were injured. Sheriff’s investigators determined Jenner was traveling at an unsafe speed for traffic conditions. Prosecutors declined to file a vehicular manslaughter charge against Jenner, who won a 1976 Olympic gold medal in the decathlon as Bruce Jenner before recently transitioning to a woman (AP)."
And "she" was honored as bravest woman of the year.
"Belgium arrests 10th suspect in Paris attacks investigation" by John-Thor Dahlburg Associated Press December 31, 2015
BRUSSELS — Belgian authorities on Thursday announced the arrest of a 10th person in connection with last month’s bloodbath in Paris and said six others had been detained and questioned over a suspected plot to stage new attacks in Brussels during the holidays.
Law enforcement officials said there is no known connection between the two investigations, but they highlight the role of Belgium as a hotbed of Islamic radicalism in Europe.
Ha-ha-ha-ha!
Look what else they found:
Computer materials, cellphones, and equipment for airsoft, a sport that uses replica firearms to fire nonmetallic pellets, were confiscated in the Thursday searches, prosecutors said. Previous searches in the case led to the impounding of military-style training uniforms and IS propaganda material, they said.
This, really, is SILLI were it not so serious.
Two men were arrested earlier this week in connection with the suspected holiday plot, both members of a motorcycle club.
Vroom, vroom!
The prosecutor’s office said no weapons or explosives were found in Wednesday’s search. It provided no further details, but French police reports cited by the Le Monde newspaper have said the Paris attackers were in cellphone contact with two numbers in Belgium during the night of the killings.
Le Monde said the police reports show the attacks were orchestrated or at least closely monitored, in real time, from Belgium.
Oh, I bet they were! We are looking at a crisis drill gone live! I resolve to view all such things as just that until proven otherwise by sources outside the propaganda pre$$.
Paris prosecutor’s office spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre confirmed details released in Le Monde of the cellphone communications and activity. They included a text message sent from a suicide bomber to a phone in Belgium moments before three gunmen stormed a rock concert in the Bataclan theater, and Internet searches about the concert venue and the American headliner band, Eagles of Death Metal....
Time to tune this out and delete the rest.
--more--"
***********************
Calling Avon
No answer today.
Holiday Bowl Game
Looks like Maine won 2-0.
Who called that play?
Hitting the Couch
More like a love seat:
"Mother of ‘affluenza’ teen is jailed in Los Angeles" by Christopher Weber Associated Press December 31, 2015
LOS ANGELES — The mother of a fugitive Texas teen known for using an ‘‘affluenza’’ defense in a fatal drunken-driving accident will likely remain jailed for several days in Los Angeles after being deported from Mexico, investigators said Thursday.
Kind of a switch, huh?
Tonya Couch and her 18-year-old, Ethan, were taken into custody this week in Mexico, where authorities believe the pair fled in November as Texas prosecutors investigated whether he had violated his probation.
Ethan Couch was being held at a detention facility in Mexico City after winning a court reprieve that could lead to a weeks- or even months-long legal process in Mexico, a Mexican immigration official told The Associated Press on Thursday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he or she was not authorized to be quoted by name.
But his mother was deported and flown to Los Angles, where she was escorted through the city’s sprawling LAX airport in handcuffs by U.S. marshals early Thursday. She will remain jailed in Los Angeles until officers can take her to Texas. That likely won’t happen until at least next week.
In Texas, prosecutors charged Tonya Couch with hindering apprehension of a felon. Her bond there was set at $1 million, Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Samantha Jordan said Thursday.
A call to Tonya Couch’s attorney was not immediately returned. It’s unclear why Couch was flown to Los Angeles. The mother and son were taken into custody Monday in Mexico, after authorities said a phone call for a pizza delivery led to their capture in the resort city of Puerto Vallarta. Local police said the pair stayed at a condominium complex for a few days before moving to an apartment.
The appeal filed in Mexico on behalf of Ethan Couch argues that deportation would violate his rights. Richard Hunter, chief deputy for the U.S. Marshals Service in South Texas, said Wednesday that the legal maneuver ‘‘seems to me they want to drag this thing out.’’
I'm not going to any longer.
--more--"
Also see: Court orders new trial for man convicted of drugging, rape
No, it's not the Coz. The Globe put a blanket over that.
"Why prosecutors are charging Bill Cosby 12 years later, and why other rape cases quietly die" by Danielle Paquette December 31, 2015
At least 50 other women have made similar accusations against Bill Cosby, but most will never see their cases go to court. The statutes of limitations on rape and sexual assault legally nullify their decades-old accusations.
Statutes of limitations, which vary widely by state, date back to Roman law. Legal scholars say they persist to protect the legal process from deteriorated evidence and witnesses' faded memories.
As of 2014, there has been a growing effort to end -- or at least lengthen -- the limits on prosecuting sex crimes across the country in the wake of the Catholic church child abuse cases and now the accusations against Cosby.
Such deadlines are often blown in sexual assault cases. Some victims put off going to police because they fear family, friends or law enforcement will blame or judge them for what happened, said Monika Johnson Hostler, president of the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence.
“It takes a lot to come forward,” Hostler said. “We see that with victims of all ages. They need time to think about it. They may feel ashamed.”
The country's backlog of rape kits — roughly 400,000, according to a 2014 estimate from the Justice Department — can also stall legal proceedings. Some untested kits date back to the 1980s, sitting on shelves long after the statute of limitations has expired.
The case of Constand and Cosby is unique, said James Shellenberger, a law professor at Temple University. Media attention likely raised it from the legal grave, he said. The combination of public outrage and lurid details from recently unsealed court documents likely prompted a renewed investigation.
The charges came after the documents from 2005, opened in September, revealed Cosby gave conscious-altering drugs called quaaludes to women he saw as prospective sex partners....
--more--"
Some say he is being framed.
At least he only fingered rather than f***ed 'em, and he didn't kill anyone.
**********************
Nazi Treasure Train is a Myth
Didn't stop here today.
So Long to Sudan
Haven't seen 'em since.
End of the Year Cop Out: Cleveland Tosses Rice Case
Now it is the kids with guns that are threat.
"Newly released e-mails reveal coordination after teen’s death" by Tammy Webber Associated Press December 31, 2015
CHICAGO — The Chicago mayor’s office, police and the body that investigates police shootings closely coordinated their actions in the days after a white officer fatally shot a black teenager in 2014, emails released Thursday revealed.
Like in a.... gulp.... conspiracy.
Thousands of emails were released in response to open-records requests from The Associated Press and other media regarding 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, who was killed in October of last year after being shot 16 times.
The video, which was not made public until Nov. 24, led to weeks of protests and repeated calls for Mayor Rahm Emanuel to resign. Days before the video’s release, mayoral spokesman Adam Collins wrote to police and law department representatives urging them to speak with ‘‘one voice’’ on the topic.
Emanuel’s senior legal adviser, Stephen Patton, emailed Collins on Dec. 9, 2014, saying he told his staff to inform him ‘‘immediately’’ when a lawsuit in the case was filed.
The emails also included messages in which officials asked how they should respond to demands for the footage. News organizations had been pressing for the documents for weeks.
Emanuel and Chicago police have been under heavy scrutiny since the city, under court order, released the squad-car video last month showing officer Jason Van Dyke shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in October 2014. The city released the emails a day after Emanuel said police must be better trained. His remarks came on the heels of a shooting last weekend by police that killed two people: 55-year-old Bettie Jones, who police said was shot accidentally, and 19-year-old Quintonio LeGrier, who police said was being ‘‘combative.’’ Both were black.
Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez said Thursday that she has asked the FBI for help investigating the deaths. She said the shooting ‘‘demands a very deliberate and meticulous independent investigation.’’
And she thinks the FBI is going to help?
--more--"
That's what the Globe tossed to us today.
*************************
End of the Year Cop Out: No, Virginia, There Is No Santa Claus
He didn't come today, either.
End of the Year Cop Out: California's Cold Dead Hand
Rigor mortis setting in.
End of the Year Cop Out: Florida Emergency Room
Already been discharged.
End of the Year Cop Out: Georgian Bridge
Burned it.
End of the Year Cop Out: Puerto Rico By Default
Check is in the mail.
End of the Year Cop Out: Snapshot of Philadelphia
Already in the album.
End of the Year Cop Out: Clubbing in Alabama
I don't drink.
End of the Year Cop Out: Kansas Cut
On the floor now.
What's the Password?
Ask the Supreme Court:
"The Authors Guild has officially asked the Supreme Court to hear its case against Google — a long-running dispute over whether copyright law allows for Google to scan and post excerpts from books for its Google Books service."
I paid for these printed Globes!
Chism's Conviction
Overturned on appeal.
Too Much Christmas Cheer For New Mexican Governor
Feels okay now.
Final Breakfast Bitran of 2015
Globe skipped it this morning, and I'll bet I know why.
For Auld Lang Syne
"US stocks closed lower on Thursday, capping the worst year for the market since 2008. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index ended in the red in 2015. The Dow Jones industrial average also closed out the year with a loss. While US employers added jobs at a solid pace and consumer confidence improved, several factors weighed on stocks in 2015."
‘‘It’s a lousy end to a pretty lousy year, a very unrewarding year.’’
Jobless benefits applications hit six-month high
Yes, the mixed me$$ages have indeed become unrewarding, and it's time for a change.
I resolve to present more Blog Roll and less Bo$ton Globe.
UPDATE:
"It is funny how revealing these stories are if you read them carefully. The FBI picked a mentally disturbed 'self-professed Muslim convert', described as 'an aggressive panhandler', an ex-con who talked crazy violence, had their operative drive him to pick up terrorism supplies, in this case, knives, a machete, ski masks and plastic cable ties (and the operative paid for them as their patsy had no money), and then drive him by a target location - a place which he didn't like as they apparently wouldn't let him panhandle! - and got him to discuss it as a possible target, had another operative get him to pledge some kind of 'allegiance' to Baghdadi, and then, to emphasize the situation, after the plot was supposedly foiled by brave FBI work, had the fireworks show in Rochester canceled (note that only the fireworks was canceled, as I guess Muslims have a particular thing about fireworks)." --xymphora
Ha-ha-ha!
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
Latest FBI Terrorism Patsy, Emanuel Lutchman: An Idiot Beggar Who Was Easily Manipulated, Wanted to Cancel Paid Informant’s Attack Plans
He's a black man?
"A new year, with the economy on the same track, but many of the problems that dogged the US and Massachusetts economy in 2015 remain. In an article published Wednesday in a German newspaper, the International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde warned that global growth will be disappointing and uneven in 2016. Still.... "
Related: IMF On Lagarde
Time to check the ball score:
"New York AG wants DraftKings, FanDuel to give back money, the latest twist in a complicated legal battle.... "It's no surprise the attorney general is now going after the companies' bank accounts." The new demands show that Schneiderman is "trying to flex his muscles as much as possible."
For some reason those printed quotes were scrubbed.
"Maine State Police said two people were found dead in a parked car Christmas morning and the deaths are suspicious. Police said one of the victims called 911 around 3:30 a.m. Friday from an isolated dirt road near a number of sand and gravel pits in Manchester. Officers responded and found the man and woman dead. Police did not release their names but said they were both in their 20s."
"Munich on high alert after New Year’s Eve terrorism threat" by Melissa Eddy New York Times January 01, 2016
BERLIN — Hundreds of police officers remained on alert in Munich on Friday, after a threat of a suicide bombing attack by the Islamic State led authorities to evacuate two train stations on New Year’s Eve.
The German authorities said Friday that five to seven people may have been involved in the terrorist threat. The two stations, in the city center and in the city’s Pasing district, were both reopened.
Officials defended their decision to close the two transit hubs hours before midnight and to flood the city with heavily armed officers. They said they had received a “very concrete tip” around 7:40 p.m. from intelligence sources in France and the United States indicating that militants from Iraq and Syria were planning to carry out attacks.
Pfffft!
They are yanking as all about as they thrash around with their perpetual campaign of fear.
Extra precautions had already been put in place across the Continent for New Year’s Eve celebrations, less than two months after Islamist militants carried out a series of bloody attacks in and near Paris. Festivities were canceled in Brussels, the seat of many European Union institutions, and extra precautions were in place in Austria, France and the Netherlands after warnings from the intelligence service of an unspecified “friendly” country.
Has to be Israel. Making their puppets jump.
Senior security officials in Washington and in European capitals said U.S. intelligence agencies had played a major role in detecting possible plots in the days leading up to the year-end holidays and in sharing information.
Pfffft!
“Last night’s threat was so specific that we couldn’t wait to determine whether it was serious or not, but had to act,” said Joachim Herrmann, the interior minister of Bavaria.
(Blog editor just shaking his head)
Although the authorities in Munich said the intelligence information had included the names of suspects from Iraq, Hubertus Andrae, chief of the Munich police, said Friday that no one had been arrested and that the authorities were unsure if the people were in the country.
Sigh.
“The situation in Europe and in Germany remains serious in the new year,” Thomas de Maizière, the German interior minister, said in a statement Friday. “Since the attacks in Paris, we have received several hints. Federal and state security services are following up on these indications, including of possible planned attacks.”
Germany has not experienced the sort of attacks that were carried out in Madrid in 2004, London in 2005 and Paris last year, but the authorities in Berlin warn that the country remains a possible target, most notably because of its military presence in Afghanistan.
German authorities called off the popular Eschborn-to-Frankfurt bike race scheduled for May in response to information about a potential attack, and they arrested a German-Turkish couple who had been storing weapons in their home.
Days after the Paris attacks on Nov. 13, which included suicide bombings at a soccer match between the German and French national teams, a game in Hanover between Germany and the Netherlands hours was called off hours before kickoff, because of a suspicious package. No arrests were made.
The web version added this:
The authorities in Munich said that police reinforcements would be on duty throughout New Year’s Day. They said that identity checks would be carried out, and asked that residents be patient with the increased security measures.
Feels like the 1930s and '40s all over again, doesn't it?
One resident, Oliver Habel, said he had spent New Year’s Eve in a restaurant in the southern part of the city, and that he learned about the terrorism scare Friday morning. “I am very confident in the security measurements in Bavaria, so I am not concerned,” he said.
Other European countries also continued to take possible security threats seriously. Terminal 3 at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol was evacuated Friday after a British man shouted that he had a bomb, although none was found. The man was later arrested.
Isn't that one of the airports where Israel companies provide security? Got caught with their pants down once, remember? Guy was trying to bomb in his underwear?
In Russia, the state-run news agency RIA Novosti said that about 500 people had been evacuated from two train stations in Moscow after the police were told that bombs had been planted. No explosive devices were found.
Not even Russians are immune.
--more--"
Also see:
Bostonians share hopes for new year
Boston’s first baby of 2016 born at Tufts Medical Center
Woman attacked in Dorchester early New Year’s Day
Woman shot in Dorchester early Friday morning
I guess shootings are up in Boston.
Two men arrested in Boston armed robbery
Authorities identify 24-year-old man shot to death in New Bedford on New Year’s Eve
Sorry to throw cold water on the celebration.
At least one hurt in 5-alarm Spencer fire
More than 50 people killed in fires in 2015
"Police say they do not believe the vandalism was committed by a gathering of young people. “I just don’t understand; it doesn’t make any sense. What’s going through [the vandals’] heads? What kind of morals do they have?”
"NY payphones become Wi-Fi hot spots" by Jennifer Peltz Associated Press January 02, 2016
NEW YORK — Others have qualms about linking their devices to a public network as they stroll down the street, though the city has said data will be encrypted and any information harvested for advertising will be anonymized.
Yeah, the state has done a great job protecting all your information from hackers, etc.
Payphones might seem like telecom relics when 68 percent of Americans own smartphones, according to the Pew Research Center on Internet, Science & Technology, but a consortium of companies, including wireless technology player Qualcomm Inc., is to pay the estimated $200 million installation cost and take half the revenue from the kiosks’ digital advertising, projected at $1 billion over 12 years. The city gets the other half, more than doubling the $17 million a year it gets from payphones now.
As u$ual, the motivation is a $elf-$erving one here in AmeriKa.
Each hot spot covers about a 150-foot radius with what’s pledged as one-gigabit-per-second service, about 20 times the speed of average home Internet service. Officials have said the service is intended for outdoor use; it’s not clear whether it might extend inside some businesses and homes.
You can charge your phone at the drugstore.
Though many Americans now carry Internet connectivity in their pockets, the network “can be a win for users who can save on their data plans, and it can be a win for [cellular] networks if they’re really overtaxed,” said Erik Stallman, general counsel of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a group that advocates for Internet liberties and access.
Tourists without local cellular service also could benefit, noted John Breyault, a National Consumers League vice president.
LinkNYC isn’t without opponents: A payphone company has sued the city, saying it created a monopoly for the new consortium. The city has said it believes the arrangement is legal.
Many US cities strove to cover themselves in Wi-Fi in the early 2000s. But a number of the plans foundered as home access proliferated, usage and ad revenues disappointed, and some Internet service providers complained the networks were unfair competitors, but some cities have reinvigorated their efforts....
They want to talk to you.
--more--"
There used to be concerns about cancer regarding all the electromagnetic radiation regarding the cellphones; however, all that concern $eems to have wa$hed away.
I resolve to end this post now.
UPDATE:
"Police continued to investigate a Dorchester home invasion Sunday, the day after three armed men in masks allegedly stormed the Norfolk Street residence. The Boston police SWAT team and police dogs searched for clues Saturday near 193 Norfolk St., where a person called police at about 9 p.m. to report three intruders. According to Boston police spokeswoman Rachel McGuire, an occupant of the house said the three men were armed with a handgun, brass knuckles, and a knife. They fled before police arrived, McGuire said. Investigators also would not say whether anything was taken by the intruders."
Related: Teen shot in leg at Franklin Field housing complex
Also see:
One person wounded in Mattapan shooting
Motion to block subpoena of Bill Cosby’s wife denied
Camille Cosby seeking to delay deposition
Camille Cosby deposition delayed
