rimblr.com

Three second-generation iPhones displaying calendar, e-mail and blogging applications.
Three second-generation iPhones displaying calendar, e-mail and blogging applications.
Think that new $199 iPhone is going to save you money over the older $399 model? Guess again.
In a classic bait-and-switch, AT&T is raising its minimum monthly service subscription for the new iPhone from $60 to $70 per month, according to the Associated Press.
That’s an extra $240 over the lifetime of the two-year contract — more than the $200 initial savings on the handheld’s retail price.
And all you “unlockers” probably won’t be able to buy an iPhone directly from Apple and then jimmy it to work on another network with a cheaper plan.
That’s because it looks like Apple isn’t going to sell them online any more. It’s not taking pre-orders on its Web site, as it has for every other device it unveils before they’re ready to ship.
Instead, you’re instructed to go to a brick-and-mortar Apple Store — where dollars to doughnuts you’ll be forced to sign your name on a two-year AT&T service contract, just as you would in an AT&T retail store.
On Wednesday, the British edition of CNet’s News Crave gadget blog reported just that — British buyers of the iPhone 3G will be signing a service contract with O2, the authorized U.K. carrier, before walking out with their new devices.
Why is this happening? Because, as the mainstream cellular carriers discovered long ago, Americans aren’t as willing to part with their money upfront as foreigners are.
A year ago, Apple thought it could buck the U.S. industry trend of charging customers little for an expensive phone, and then making up for it later with service charges and add-ons.
In Europe and Asia, customers are used to paying hundreds of dollars for a high-end phone, with the tradeoff that their monthly fees aren’t as quite high as they are in America.

foxnews.com

Once again, death by crane has come to the East Side of Manhattan. As stadiums are built, a new subway line is dug and office towers soar, one anonymous apartment house development on 91st Street has provided another flash look at the vulnerability of life in a crowded city. While people across the street were getting ready for work on Friday morning, a crane fell and ripped open their homes.
This, it appears, is the cost of a boom.
For the last three or four years, the amount of money spent on construction in New York City has grown by 18 percent annually, according to the New York Building Congress; it will be more than $30 billion this year. Major construction companies have so much work that they are booked for years to come. These are the companies that also have the biggest stake in making sure that their businesses are run safely, to avoid driving up their insurance premiums.
Down the food chain, the door is open for companies with less experience.
“If you’re suggesting there are ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams, you’d be correct,” said William A. Marino, the chairman of Allied North America, a company that arranges insurance for construction in New York and 16 other cities. “In any business, as organizations get stretched thin, you have the most qualified people do the most important things. As the volume increases, that’s going on to a greater extent.
“If you did this amount of work in any city in the country, you’d have similar results. If there is no work in town, the level of accidents is going to be less. But that’s not an excuse.”
The competition for high-rise builders and their machines reaches far beyond New York. China has been on a building binge for the 2008 Summer Olympics. It is said that one-fifth of all the cranes in the world are now being used in Dubai — a statistic that is hard to prove, but looks true.

nytimes.com

Each year about this time, tens of thousands of people join in a stream of humanity surging toward the Jersey Shore.
“Something just draws people here,” said Michele Gillian of the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce. “You can’t touch it, but it’s there.”
And much like salmon fighting their way upstream, shore visitors can end up battling heavy traffic this Memorial Day weekend.
“Traffic always spikes on a holiday,” said Sharon Gordon of the South Jersey Transportation Authority, which operates the Atlantic City Expressway.
Almost 700,000 vehicles used the expressway over Memorial Day weekend in 2007. “We expect this year we’ll be a little more heavily traveled because the weather looks absolutely beautiful,” Gordon said.
Motorists will pay a record $3.69 a gallon for regular gasoline in New Jersey, up by 73 cents from a year ago. As a result, AAA Mid-Atlantic estimates about 45,000 fewer New Jerseyans will travel this weekend, compared to the 2007 holiday.
But some observers think gas prices might benefit shore resorts because state residents will want to vacation closer to home.
“That story is still to be told,” said Gordon.
A new statewide traffic management effort is expected to help motorists with travel-related decisions. The program, which debuted last week, includes a constantly updated traffic Web site and a 5-1-1 telephone system for travel and weather information.
Personalized alerts, which will deliver information to motorists’ cell phones and e-mail accounts, are expected to begin in mid-June, said Erin Phalon of the state Department of Transportation.
State workers who oversee the program can follow traffic on state highways and other major roads through 420 surveillance cameras. They also can access message signs, traffic signals and highway advisory radio systems.

courierpostonline.com

The New Jersey State Assembly this week passed a bill that will make it easier for every day citizens to resell tickets over the internet. New Jersey is one of only a handful of states that currently has strict regulations regarding ticket resale.
The bill will allow for unlimited ticket prices for any ticket resold over the internet, as long as it was not sold by a ticket broker. The bill would not outlaw or make it illegal for brokers to resell tickets to various entertainment events, but it would place brokers at a disadvantage when it comes to setting the price for reselling tickets.
Under the proposed bill, no ticket broker would be able to resell tickets at more than 50 percent above face value. Such stipulations are seen unfairly singling out ticket brokers, according to Tom Patania, CEO of New Jersey-based Select a Ticket, who told TicketNews that the language of the bill seems to go against the apparent free market economy the bill claims to support.
Furthermore, Patania worries that the bill will hurt local business for ticket brokers. “Why would a New Jersey resident have to go to an internet website for some out of state company instead of dealing, as they have been, with the local brokers who reside and do business in this state?”
In a conversation with TicketNews, Assemblyman John Burzichelli, the bill’s sponsor, addressed the concerns raised by Patania, emphasizing that the bill will not drastically change the ticket market within New Jersey. “The bill simply makes legal the internet selling that always occurs,” offers Burzichelli, “The practice is already going on, so the bill won’t change anything drastically.”
Bruzichelli also said that he has been in talks with ticket brokers, and says that it is possible that the bill may be amended in the state Senate to include provisions for ticket brokers. Should such an event occur, Bruzichelli asserts that he “would support such amendments should the Senate impose them.”

ticketnews.com

After Walter “Wolfman” Washington wailed on the Congo Square stage Saturday afternoon, steely gray clouds opened up like the Bonnet Carre Spillway, spawning shin-deep ponds that sucked the shoes right off your feet, often with a disgusting plopping noise to boot.
Very few footwear options could withstand such a soaking. Athletic shoes turned to water-logged sponges. Flip-flops needed mud flaps. Canvas slip-ons and leather sandals, well, at least they got to dance on their last day.
I thought my plastic Havaianas could weather the weather, but they perpetually got stuck in the Fair Grounds quicksand. Reaching into the opaque, brown soup to retrieve my errant flip-flops produced a pungent reminder that this is indeed a track for horse racing.
But some fest-goers came prepared.
On Friday, a day before the storms arrived, Lauren Sanborn, 27, was doing a jig in her black and white polka dot Wellingtons.
“I made everyone in my group late because I insisted on going to Target this morning and getting some rain boots,” said the New Orleans native who now lives in Houston. “Last year, remember how it poured? I wore flip-flops, and my feet looked like Jabba the Hutt. Awful. This year, I’m ready.”
Martha Thornton of Hattiesburg turned to shoes she knew could stand up to Mother Nature’s worst. She wore her “Katrina boots,” plastic pink and green floral, calf-high rubbery slickers. Considering what these boots have been through, they looked remarkably cheery.
“These are my official disaster boots,” said Thornton, who comes to Jazzfest every year. “After Katrina, every day, I wore khaki shorts, a white tank top and these boots. This is the first time I’ve worn them since then. I’m happy that they get to come out for a good time now.”
A rainbow of rain boots popped up on Saturday, giving the beloved white shrimp boot a run for its money in the most practical fest-wear category for the weekend.

blog.nola.com

FORD’S first move into the light 4×4 leisure market is called Kuga. It is based on the chassis of the Ford Focus, is built in Germany and will go on sale here in June with a two-litre diesel engine, priced at £20,500 for the Zetec and £22,500 for the Titanium trim level.
Kuga is Ford’s answer to models such as the Nissan Qashqai, built in Sunderland and on sale for a year with high satisfaction reports, and Volkswagen’s Tiguan, launched earlier this year. Qashqai’s price entry point is much lower than the German pair, because it offers two-wheel-drive models with cheaper, weaker engines. The Kuga sector best seller is the Honda CR-V, which retains the profile and stance of an SUV. Kuga is sleeker, modelled I’d say on the lines and theme of BMW’s bulkier X3.
Kuga only has the 136ps two-litre TDCi turbo diesel for the moment. A 200ps version of the Volvo/Ford 2.5 supercharged straight-five petrol motor with optional automatic gears will follow in December. Prices are expected soon.
Kuga looks good from first glance, with the latest Ford big face, a higher stance, front and rear scuff plates (arguably too vivid at the rear), left and right exhaust pipes, a sturdy stance on fat tyres and big wheels. Chip-repellent plastic runs along its bottom edges and around the wheel arches.
Nice details include a perfectly flat load deck (though requiring the squabs to be lifted), reached through a two-part tailgate. The upper section can be opened on its own, or as a piece with the lower part: you select by pressing the appropriate rubber pad in the number plate recess. When the top part is open, you can get into the load area without retracting the luggage blind. A net membrane on the upper tailgate neatly covers this access aperture when you close down.

scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com

Ask anyone which band they'd most like to see reunite and they'll probably say The Beatles - but if you drug their water or concuss them a bit there's a chance they'd say New Kids On The Block.
And if that's the case then their dreams have been answered, because New Kids On The Block are back!
After a few months of sly non-commitment, New Kids On The Block are expected to officially announce their reunion on Friday's Today show. And, as an appetite-whetter, New Kids On The Block have released the first group photo of the reunion. At least that's what we think it is - it could just be a page ripped out of Middle-Aged Weekend Father At A Court Appearance magazine that someone published as a belated April Fool joke. Who knows?
What with war and recession and global warming and Jessica Simpson's stinky piss, the world needs cheering up. And there's no group of people more likely to do that than New Kids On The Block. Not because New Kids On The Block are cool or good or anything, but because it will make the entire world briefly come together in a universal sense of brotherhood and think "Whew! It doesn't matter how bad things get for me, because at least I'm not in New Kids On The Block."
Quiet murmurings of a New Kids On The Block reunion started in January, quickly followed by a snatch of a new song. But then everything suddenly went quiet. We'll admit that part of us hoped that the New Kids On The Block reunion had come to a premature end, possibly because they all started punching each other until one was dead and the others had dislocated jaws. But more fool us, because New Kids On The Block are definitely back and raring to go.

hecklerspray.com

brITNEY Spears was so terrified of her boyfriend Adnan Ghalib cheating on her she called him constantly and sent him 100 text messages a day, his secret lover has claimed.
Amanda Pagel – who claims she slept with Ghalib for three months behind Spears’ back – said:
“Britney used to call all the time when he was at mine. She sent him hundreds of texts a day, sometimes just seconds apart.”
Pagel alleged Ghalib – who recently claimed Spears was pregnant with his child – couldn’t cope with the Toxic star’s crazy lifestyle and wanted to move away with Pagel.
She told Look magazine: “He was sick of being ‘Mr. Spears’. He said the stress was taking its toll and he hated being pursued by the paparazzi.
“He asked me to start a new life with him. He said, ‘Let’s leave Hollywood, live in Italy and start a family.’ ”
Pagel also says Ghalib always insisted he and Spears were just friends and she would never have slept with him if she knew they were a couple.
Earlier this month, it was alleged Spears had dumped Ghalib after finding racy text messages from other women on his phone.
A source said at the time: "There were about a dozen text messages from one girl, all sent on one day. They were pretty saucy stuff with sexual references - certainly not the sort you’d send to just a friend.
"Britney lost it and started yelling. She was demanding to know who sent the texts and shouting, ‘What’s this about? You’re cheating on me.’"
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news.com.au

He may look and sound like the real thing, and in some cases, may have the ladies swooning like the real thing, but we can assure Jacques Renay is not Tom Jones.
He is however, one heck of a tribute performer, who has been singing Tom’s biggest hits for well over the past decade.
Complete with back up band, he will take to the stage of Blacktown RSL Club on Saturday, March 29, as part of a special dinner and show package for members and their guests.
The Australian Tom Jones Experience has performed all around Australia and overseas.
Joining Renay on stage are three sensation backing singers and an eight piece band.
The energy of the show is unbelievable and the hits just keep coming, from the likes of What’s New Pussy Cat and Leave Your Hat On, to Green Grass Of Home and Delilah.
Unlike many tribute acts, Renay can boast having actually performed before his idol.
Not only that, but he’s also performed three times for the Queen of England.
Tickets for the dinner and show are on sale now and cost $15 for members, $20 for visitors and $8 for children.
Blacktown RSL is located in Second Avenue. Call 9622 5222.

blacktown.yourguide.com.au

I’d worked my 33rd St. Patrick’s Day parade and my long journey was over. I hadn’t planned it that way, but with vacation days owed me and leave accrued, that’s the way it worked out.
Recently, I’d asked my friend and expert researcher, Terry Yacona, if she could ascertain when New York City celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with a parade for the very first time. I was in for quite a surprise.
Terry’s research took me back a very long way — all the way back to fifth century Ireland and to a Catholic priest named Patrick. Patrick, at that time a Bishop, baptized thousands of people, established churches, ordained priests, converted the poor and the sons of kings, and encouraged women to become nuns. In his letter entitled “Declaration,” he indeed became the heart and soul and voice of the Irish.
But as to when a St. Patrick’s Day parade first arrived in New York City, I was astounded by Terry’s answer. The first recorded parade came 14 years before the signing of our Declaration of Independence. On March 17, 1762, a small group of Irish New Yorkers marched on what is now Barclay and Church streets, where more than 200 years later the Twin Towers would rise. Towers in great part built by Irish-American hands.

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