Want Free Wi-Fi In New York? Get Near A Pay Phone

Mark Thomas is using a pay phone, but he isn't paying. And physically, he's not even that close to the phone.

He's sitting on a bench on the street in Astoria, Queens, checking email on his netbook. It's grabbing an Internet signal from a military-grade antenna on top of a pay phone down the block.

"It's not the speediest but you can't complain about free, right?" Thomas says.

It's part of a pilot project converting New York City's pay phones into Wi-Fi hot spots, launched by the city, pay phone operators and, in this case, an advertising company called Van Wagner. When Thomas logs on, a new entry appears on the computer of Van Wagner executive Pete Izzo.

"I can actually click on and look at the actual calls — I call them calls, they're not really calls — the logins as they actually happen," Izzo says.

On a recent afternoon, only two people have logged on at Thomas' phone. But Izzo says these numbers could grow into something that could stop pay phones' long death spiral: They've gone from about 2 million across the country in 2000 to less than a quarter of that today.

"We see gems in other people's junk," Izzo says.

He sees in pay phones a kind of buried treasure — literally. "Basically the conduits under the street — bandwidth and electric — bring magic to the street corner," Izzo says.

Magic that could go beyond just Wi-Fi. "Security devices, snifters for the air, cameras ... Could they be banking centers someday?" Izzo says. "Sure they could."

The city is taking suggestions and encouraging experimentation to make pay phones more useful, but this isn't the first time. The first Wi-Fi hot spots at pay phones in New York City were launched in 2003.

"People have tried it over the years, but so far I'm not aware of any that have been turned out to be financially successful," says Randy Nichols, president of the American Public Communications Council, a trade association for pay phone operators.

Nichols thinks the main challenge for these would-be pay phones of the future is actually paying for them.

Tom Keane, the chief executive officer of Jaroth-PTS, one of the nation's largest pay phone owners, says the solution could be advertising. That's already the case in New York City.

"That hasn't been a pay phone business for a very long time. That's been a media display ad business hidden in a phone booth," Keane says.

A pay phone in New York typically grosses less than $100 a month from actual calls. They can generate nearly 10 times that much just from the poster-sized ads on the booths' sides.

If Wi-Fi hot spots or Internet touch screens catch on, Keane thinks they could become advertiser-funded, too. And that could make more than just Internet access free, according to Izzo.

"The cost of actually providing a phone call is so low we hope to be able to give that away also someday soon," he says.

The pay phone of the future might not be a pay phone at all.

Source: National Public Radio

Sun Turns NYC into 'Manhattanhenge' Tonight

New Yorkers will be treated to a special sight tonight: Today is one of two days a year when the setting sun aligns perfectly with Manhattan's street grid. As the sun sets on the Big Apple, it will light up both the north and south sides of every cross street.

The event has been dubbed "Manhattanhenge" for the way it turns New York City into a Stonehenge-like sun dial.

The sun sets perfectly in line with the Manhattan street grid twice a year, explains astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson on the Hayden Planetarium website.

Here are the best viewing times for Manhattanhenge 2012:

May 29 at 8:17 p.m. EDT

July 12 at 8:25 p.m. EDT

There are two other days when the sun isn't perfectly aligned with the grid, but still puts on a show. On these two days, May 30 and July 11 this year, you see a full sun sitting on the horizon when looking down the cross streets, rather than the half orb. Here are the best times to catch the full sun setting on New York City:

May 30 at 8:16 p.m. EDT

July 11 at 8:24 p.m. EDT

Source:Yahoo News

Iran's Ahmadinejad: US used 9/11 to prolong world domination

How absolutely absurd is this? Ahmadinejad, addressing the UN General Assembly, says Iran will host a terror conference to investigate who was really behind 9/11.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced from the United Nations in New York Thursday that Iran will host an international conference on terrorism in the coming year that among other things will discuss who really carried out the 9/11 attacks.

Mr. Ahmadinejad, who delved into the 9/11 tragedy in the context of a speech focused on what he called the “crisis” facing capitalism and the Western-dominated world order, said history will record that a failing world dominator used the attacks as a pretext for occupying two countries, Afghanistan and Iraq. Citing a list of conspiracy theories over who destroyed the twin towers, he said that, whoever the culprits, the United States proceeded to use the events to try to prolong a dying world order of domination.

Addressing the annual opening of the UN General Assembly, just miles from the site of the deadliest of the 9/11 attacks, the Iranian leader said the US responded to the attacks by firing up a “propaganda machine” to convince the world that war was the necessary response.

“We were all saddened for the 3,000 lives lost on 9/11,” he said, but he added that “since then hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

The walkout

The US delegation and others walked out of Ahmadinejad's speech after he began enumerating his theories as to who could have been behind the 9/11 attacks, the second of which was that "some segments within the US government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy and its grips on the Middle East in order also to save the Zionist regime." The US holds Al Qaeda responsible for the attacks.

Ahmadinejad said the international conference he proposed would “study terrorism and the means to confront it.”

The controversial leader, who had to pass by chanting protesters railing against his rule on his way into the UN headquarters, was –despite his 9/11 tangent – less fiery than in past years, though in some ways no more modest. He unilaterally assigned the General Assembly the task of designing within one year a new UN governing structure free of the control of a few powerful countries sitting on the Security Council – a body he called one of the world’s least democratic and just.

Ahmadinejad did not directly respond to the invitation Western powers have extended to Iran to return to negotiations over its nuclear program – other than to repeat that Iran is always open to dialogue that is based on mutual respect and equal rights. But he did speak at length on the global nuclear issue, criticizing nuclear arms as a tool of domination for the few who possess them, but extolling nuclear power as a clean and inexpensive energy source for all.

'Nuclear energy for all'

Declaring another goal for the coming year, he said 2011 should be proclaimed “a year of nuclear disarmament” with the motto: “Nuclear energy for all, nuclear weapons for none.”

Ahmadinejad’s address followed by a few hours President Obama’s declaration to the same international gathering that Iran is the only signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty unable to demonstrate to UN nuclear energy officials that its nuclear program is solely peaceful in nature. As if in response, the Iranian leader acknowledged Iran’s lack of full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, but said Iran is exercising its international rights.

“Yes it’s true, we have never submitted to the IAEA’s illegally imposed pressures,” he said, “and we never will.” As for the fourth round of economic sanctions approved earlier this year, he said they are merely “destroying the remaining credibility of the Security Council.”

Despite such worldly issues, much of Ajmadinejad’s speech focused on theological themes and a world where he said man’s spiritual nature is obscured by materialistic pursuits.

As he has often in the past, he railed against a Western society that destroys “the purity and exquisiteness” of women. And he referred to the recent controversy over a proposed burning of the Quran by a Florida minister, calling such acts evil but then concluding that “the truth cannot be burned.”

He then held aloft both the Quran and the Bible, and declared, “We pay respect to both books.”

Credits: Howard LaFranchi, Christian Science Monitor

"Amateurish" Car Bomb Found in Times Square

Thousands of people were evacuated from the area Saturday night after a T-shirt vendor alerted police of a smoking Nissan Pathfinder that was haphazardly parked in the heart of Times Square. Police found a homemade bomb that was made with three propane tanks, fireworks, two 5-gallon gasoline containers, and two clocks with batteries. A police spokesman said the device seemed to have started detonating but malfunctioned. Although there are reports of someone running away from the scene, police have no leads. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the device "looked amateurish" and the New York Times cites an expert saying that if the device had actually worked "it would be more of an incendiary event" rather than an explosion. Still, that hardly means it wasn't potentially dangerous. "We avoided what could have been a very deadly event," Bloomberg said. The Associated Press points out that while the device may have been assembled badly, Islamic militants have been using propane and compressed gas for years "to enhance the force of explosives." Most of the area was reopened to the public early Sunday morning, but there was still a heavy police presence in the area, reports the Wall Street Journal. The Daily Telegraph reports word that police are investigating a possible link with the recent controversy involving South Park because the bomb was left near Viacom's offices. There are also reportedly "striking similarities" between the bomb that was left in Times Square and two that were planted by Islamic terrorists outside a London nightclub in 2007.

Credits: New York Times

New Yorkers Relieved: Doormen Strike Averted

Lord forbid New Yorkers have to be bothered with opening their own door, calling their own cab, or taking out their own trash.

New Yorkers Relieved: Doormen Strike Averted

According to this article, Building workers make about $40,000 a year, plus whatever they get in tips and holiday gifts from residents. While that sounds like a good chunk of change, imagine the people they deal with on a daily basis. Whether it be the bums on the street, the homeless seeking shelter from the cold or the tenants who live in the high-priced buildings, I am certain that we can add doormen to the list of folks who don't get paid anywhere near what they are worth.

Credits: NPR