Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 1009

New York Gets Its First Ice Bar, Because Ice Bars Are a Thing Now

Because waiting five months to get wasted while shivering in hats and gloves is not much of a #YOLO move, the ice bar is officially in — and coming to New York. 

Or so writes Reed Tucker of the New York Post, reporting on Monday's opening of the Minus5 Ice Bar  — where tables, chairs, walls, and decorative sculptures are carved from "100% pure Canadian ice" and drinks are served up by penguin-headed women in bikinis — at the Hilton Hotel New York on Sixth Avenue. Winter gear, including gloves and a parka, comes with admission. Not enticed (ugh) yet? Check out the interior decorating, which falls somewhere between "futuristic glamour lounge" and "a meat-freezer":

About 50 people can fit inside the bar, which is chilled using high-tech machinery Bowman claims is on par cost-wise with what an average restaurant pays in utilities.

Benches are covered in fur for comfort, and walls are adorned with New York City-centric art, including a frosty spin on the Statue of Liberty. Bartenders wear parkas to stay warm, Bowman said.

Not that the concept is entirely new — similarly arctic-themed ice bars exist around the world, and  Minus5 already boasts two locations in the nation's capital of Literally Throwing Money Into Holes, Las Vegas  — but it's not a real trend until you can risk wintry respiratory symptoms without leaving the muggy confines of Manhattan, right? (No, The New York Times haltingly reminds us. It's not a real trend until it lands in the newly trendy Will.i.amsburg.) Plus, as the recent rise of the throwback cocktails attests, drinking trends don't need to be new to captivate. Minus5, to its credit, mostly sticks to a vodka-based menu.

But will New Yorkers cough up a $20-$45 cover (or more, if they crave the $95 "VIP Package") to shiver in an insulated 23-degree chamber after depositing their iPhones in temperature-safe lockers at the door? Yes. Yes, they probably will. And arctic-fetishists who opt for the $95 "VIP package" can revel in the novelty of it all while bringing home theme park-style souvenir photos of the whole experience. Imagine showing off one of those as you sweat at your July 4th weekend barbecue while handling a Foreman grill that is decidedly not carved from ice.

       

The Muslim Brotherhood Calls for a 'Day of Rejection' in Egypt

Egypt's brand-new president Adly Mansoor's attempt to keep a door open for the Muslim Brotherhood in the country's transitional process was swiftly rejected by the Islamist group, but that doesn't mean that party, along with other Islamist groups aren't making their positions known in the days after a military intervention — one that looks very much like a coup — removed former president Mohammed Morsi from office. 

On Friday, the party has called for a "day of rejection" in the country against the military's intervention and arrest of several Muslim Brotherhood leaders. Those arrests included the supreme leader of the Islamist group, Mohamed al-Badie. After the arrests (Morsi himself is apparently in military custody, and facing an investigation for "insulting the presidency"), and the blackouts on several Islamist supported television stations, Morsi loyalists are despondent — both about the coup itself, and about the swift failure of their party's attempt to give Egypt an Islamic-based system of governance, a dream that was, after all, a significant factor in their disastarous overreach after a slim electoral victory, leading to their loss of any semblance of popular support in the first place. A Muslim Brotherhood spokesperson told the Guardian that "we are being headhunted all over the country. We are holding a mass rally after Friday prayers to take all peaceful steps necessary to bring down this coup," adding that the party was urging the protests to be peaceful. The military has said that they will respect the rights of protesters to speak out, so long as they're not violent or destructive (or, more vaguely, "excessive")

But one of the Muslim Brotherhood's long-standing issues as a political movement in the country has been its inability to speak with one voice, leading to a public presence of unending contradictions. Even the official call for peaceful protests conflicts with Morsi and other Muslim Brotherhood leaders' calls for martyrdom while facing the threat of military intervention — calls that continue among some party loyalists as the political turmoil is interpreted by Morsi's frustrated and fearful supporters as a direct attack on Islam itself.  

That contradiction isn't helped by actual violence breaking out in the country after the change of power. In Egypt's tumultuous Sinai peninsula, Islamist militants attacked multiple military targets early Friday, local time, according to a Reuters report. At least one soldier is dead. And while the region is the home of quite a lot of violence, making it difficult to assume the precise motivations behind the attacks until someone steps forward to claim them, the timing will speak volumes on its own. 

       

There's a Zombie-like Security Flaw in Almost Every Android Phone

Almost every Android phone has a big, gaping security weakness, according to the security startup who discovered the vulnerability. Essentially, according to BlueBox, almost every Android phone made in the past four years (or, since Android "Donut," version 1.6) is just a few steps away from becoming a virtual George Romero film, thanks to a weakness that can "turn any legitimate application into a malicious Trojan." 

While news of a security vulnerability in Android might not exactly be surprising to users, the scope of the vulnerability does give one pause: "99 percent" of Android mobiles, or just under 900 million phones, are potentially vulnerable, according to the company. All hackers have to do to get in is modify an existing, legitimate app, which they're apparently able to do without breaking the application's security signature. Then, distribute the app and convince users to install it.

Google, who hasn't commented on the vulnerability yet, has known about the weakness since February, and they've already patched the Samsung Galaxy S4, according to CIO. And they've also made it impossible for the malicious apps to to install through Google Play. But the evil apps could still get onto a device via email, a third-party store, or basically any website. Here's the worst-case scenario for exploitation of the vulnerability, or what could potentially happen to an infected phone accessed via an application developed by a device manufacturer, which generally come with elevated access, according to BlueBox: 

Installation of a Trojan application from the device manufacturer can grant the application full access to Android system and all applications (and their data) currently installed. The application then not only has the ability to read arbitrary application data on the device (email, SMS messages, documents, etc.), retrieve all stored account & service passwords, it can essentially take over the normal functioning of the phone and control any function thereof (make arbitrary phone calls, send arbitrary SMS messages, turn on the camera, and record calls). Finally, and most unsettling, is the potential for a hacker to take advantage of the always-on, always-connected, and always-moving (therefore hard-to-detect) nature of these “zombie” mobile devices to create a botnet. 

The company recommends users of basically every Android phone double check the source of any apps they install, keep their devices updated, and take their own precautions to protect their data. But as TechCrunch notes, Android users really should be doing this anyway, as the devices tend to come with a " general low-level risk" from malware. That risk, however, is elevated for users who venture outside of the Google Play store for their apps. 

So while the actual impact of the vulnerability is not known, neither is the timeline for fixing it. Manufacturers will have to release their own patches for the problem in order to fix it, something that happens notoriously slowly among Android devices. 

       

The Growing State-by-State Fight over Marriage Equality

New Jersey's effective prohibition on gay marriages is facing a court challenge from an advocacy group in the state. The group, already suing the state, submitted a court filing on Wednesday in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on the Defense of Marriage Act. They join Michigan — ranked numbers 1 and 2 on our list of states that might approve gay marriage after DOMA — and a handful of other states rapidly mounting challenges to existing state marriage laws. 

The Supreme Court stopped short of granting gay marriage rights, essentially leaving the definition of marriage to the states. But the court upped the stakes in the state-by-state fight when they effectively provided federal benefits to LGBT couples who are already, or will become, legally married. In New Jersey, Lambda Legal is in the middle of a lawsuit challenging the state, which technically has no law on the books either way on gay marriage. The state does have provisions for legal same-sex unions, but the equality of those to a marriage in the state is a huge point of contention. The DOMA decision is cited as the specific reason the group will now ask for a judge to rule in court on the state's position on gay marriage, with a hearing tentatively set for August 15th. Meanwhile, New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who has said that he believes marriage is between a man and a woman, tentatively supports a November referendum on the issue, even as Democrats in the state's legislature attempt to overturn his a veto on a same-sex marriage bill.

New Jersey and Michigan aren't the only states seeing new or renewed challenges to get same-sex marriage rights after SCOTUS's ruling. In Florida, an advocacy group is looking for plaintiffs for a possible court challenge there. There are at least two notable lawsuits filed in New Mexico, where state law neither grants nor prohibits gay marriage: one seeking a court order for a county clerk to issue a marriage license to a gay couple, and another seeking to test whether the state will recognize gay marriages from other states. There's an existing challenge to the Utah amendment banning recognition of same-sex marriages, and a new lawsuit in Arkansas on the issue, where there's also a constitutional ban on gay marriage. There's also a suit filed in Texas challenging that state's constitutional ban after DOMA, but that suit almost certainly doesn't make a strong legal case — the plaintiff, a retired nuclear engineer, is representing himself, apparently without help from national or state advocacy groups. According to the ACLU, there are at least eight notable challenges to state marriage equality bans pending in the courts. Those probably include two cases, in Nevada and Hawaii, that could end up tempting SCOTUS in a future term to make a decision on constitutional bans against gay marriage — currently in place in 29 states. 

       

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifts Weights

If you ask the 80-year-old Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg whether she even lifts, bro, she'll respond in the affirmative. The toughest supreme court justice is putting in her time at the gym to recuperate from injuries.

In an interview with Reuters Thursday morning, Ginburg revealed she fell in her bathroom and re-injured a pair of ribs in May. She suffered from injured ribs last June, too, but fought through them because she's tough as nails. Ginsburg sought treatment quickly time and clearly didn't let them get in the way of participating in last months' major decisions.

She's doing fine now, hitting the gym, and pissing off Justice Samuel Alito. But, most importantly, she has no intention of retiring anytime soon. "It really has to be, 'Am I equipped to do the job?'," she told Reuters. "I was so pleased that this year I couldn't see that I was slipping in any respect." The Justice referred to as the "Notorious RBG" on T-shirts and Tumblrs by her fans, who has survived cancer twice, isn't going anywhere. 

Regarding the incident with Alito, when he rolled his eyes while she was reading a dissenting opinion a few weeks ago, Ginsburg said she didn't even notice at the time. She had to be told about it the next day by her aides, and even then she wasn't phased. 

       

What Is It About 'This Town'?

There's a book coming out soon called This Town, written by The New York Times Magazine's Mark Leibovich, and it includes some very interesting tidbits about Washington power players that you may or may not care about. In case you do care, here are the best ones. 

Over the last 36 hours or so, the self-promotion machine for This Town kicked into full-swing, albeit a little early. The embargo for This Town pieces wasn't set to lift until today, July 4, but it was already on sale at an airport bookstore Wednesday afternoon, a little less than two weeks ahead of its July 16 release date. So items about the book were posted slightly earlier than expected, with Poltico's Dylan Byers and the Washington Post's Chris Lozada publishing different takes. (One a summary of interesting bits, the other a review.) But it didn't really matter in the end, anyway, because Leibovich was also dropping his massive, nine page tell-all New York Times Magazine cover story late last night, too. It was an excerpt from the book detailing the real, complete story behind how former Rep. Darrell Issa spokesman Kurt Bardella got fired for forwarding emails to Leibovich. The book covers the self-obsessed, egomaniacal back-patting and back-stabbing that dominates the Washington political media complex, where reporters and flacks and power brokers mingle and maul in equal measure. No one is safe, from the Clintons to the President to the David Gregory to the Politico guys to whomever else has been deemed important within those circles. Everyone is using you to get further up the food chain. Washington is exactly like Veep and West Wing, only somehow even worse. 

In that way, the story of Bardella is the best barometer to judge whether or not you'll care about or enjoy This Town. The Post's Lozada called Bardella's story, the part of the book covered in the excerpt released today, "among the most gripping portions of This Town." It's probably not a good sign, then, that I fell asleep for fifteen minutes around page four of the Times' excerpt. 

That passage may only interest you if you're a very devoted follower of Washington's inside-baseball media coverage. But there are plenty of other interesting bits in the book that could make you chuckle if you at least passively follow American politics and the major journalists who report on such things. You may not know Bardella, but you're familiar with the power players on the Hill and the aides who appear on the Sunday talk shows to cover their boss's butt when things get hot. For those people, Lozada has condensed every blogable bite into a single paragraph: 

Here’s how some Leading Thinkers came out: In “This Town,” we’re told that Chris Matthews and Matt Lauer have joked that David Gregory would rub out a few colleagues to advance his career. That Bill and Hillary Clinton are convinced that Tim Russert disliked them, and that they’re not wrong. That Harry Reid has “observed privately to colleagues” that John Kerry has no friends. That West Wing types suspected Valerie Jarrett had “earpiece envy” after David Axelrod got Secret Service protection, and so arranged the same for herself. And that when a national security official suggested that Obama shouldn’t skip the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner on the weekend of the Osama bin Laden raid because the media might get suspicious, Hillary Clinton looked up and issued her verdict: “[Expletive] the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.”

For the record, Clinton said "Fuck the White House Correspondents' Dinner." We know this because Byers revealed it, too, and there were plenty of blog posts written about that very detail yesterday. These are the best headlines about the bold-faced names in This Town, all condensed into a single paragraph. Hopefully Lozada saved you some time. Now go buy the book, if you're still interested. 

       

Hats and Signs and Outrage: New Yorkers Celebrate the Fourth (Amendment)

It takes a particular commitment to walk a mile through Manhattan in 90-degree heat with a cardboard box on your head. But of the 1,000-or-so protestors who participated in today's "Restore the Fourth" march in New York City, at least a dozen took the opportunity to turn themselves into ad hoc security cameras. White shipping boxes folded into long rectangles, the letters "NSA" written on the side in marker. An unexpected way to suggest that Americans aren't happy with the government surveillance.

[image error]The display of cameras is only an analogy, of course. The actual activity that spurred the protesters is far less obvious, the collection of electronic data on phone calls and internet activity uncovered through the leaks of Edward Snowden. To be sure, the protestors knew the difference. While some compared the federal government's surveillance to the use of cameras in New York, most seemed to understand that the issue at hand was the secret use of obscure provisions of the law to collect scads of data — which in at least one instance has violated the Constitution. (Among the songs played by the crowd was The Clash's "Know Your Rights." They did.) The depth of knowledge among those in the crowd is suggested by the most unintentionally amusing sign being held by one of the attendees. It read, simply, "Reform Section 215" — a call for revisions of a component of the Patriot Act. Direct, achievable.

The march started, as marches in New York tend to, in Union Square, a trapezoid of space at 14th Street in Lower Manhattan. Under a statue of a mounted George Washington and a faded American flag, the group — mostly young, mostly white — waited patiently in the thick heat as the official program kicked off. Besides the "Reform 215" sign, messages ranged in effort and specificity. (There was a healthy dose of Occupy-style language, but it was also a day off in Union Square during the summer. Would the Socialists and LaRouchites have had tables set up anyway? Quite possibly.) Some signs were memes: Scumbag Capitol, Consuela from Family Guy. ("No. No.") Others covered the wide pastiche of liberal activism and skepticism: Vegans for the 4th, No Drones. Two isolated the Director of National Intelligence's false testimony to Congress. A picture of Bill Clinton, with the meme-style caption, "I guess perjury isn't a big deal anymore."

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Ingrid, in her early 20s, was holding a sign that read "Ask me about digital security." Posed with the question, she balked a bit. "I'm far from an expert, and am still learning a lot," she said. But she felt it was important to attend because "government and private citizens are in an arms race" over privacy. Part of it was our own fault, she seemed to suggest, noting the ease with which we've adopted the idea of "sharing" online. When asked where the line for surveillance should be drawn to still allow investigations into terrorism, her friend, Yori, jumped in. (As befits a group worried about government surveillance, most people interviewed were skeptical about offering full names.) Surveillance, Yori said "was not effective at stopping terror anyway." Noting the Boston bombing, he suggested that "security is a false excuse." Ingrid agreed. "When do we stop living in extraordinary times?"

Sarah and Leonard were a middle-aged couple that echoed that concern. "They're just basically destroying the Constitution," he offered, suggesting that the surveillance "violates the principles" in that document. "It's very sad for those of us that really supported Obama," he added, though he noted that the programs started under Bush.

[image error]The political mirror image of Sarah and Leonard were Rich and his wife (who declined to give her name). Rich was wearing a tricorn hat, befitting the day and his philosophy; his wife wore a Tea Party shirt from a group in New Jersey. Unlike Leonard, who heard about the march online, Rich saw it on the news this morning. But his motivation for attending was the same. "It's the Bill of Rights. It's the Fourth Amendment." He, too, was critical of Obama, without the qualification. "This is an administration that's way too overreaching." Where should the line be drawn on surveillance? He pointed to his sign, which read: "NSA - Select targets only!"

The program, which was largely conducted in the Occupy mic-check format, was by then starting to wrap up. (The Tea Party couple wasn't joining in the chants.) Rev. Billy, the unofficial leader of the religion of New York Progressivism, opened and closed the ceremony, with songs and chants. In between, Jose LaSalle, from an anti-stop-and-frisk group, exhorted the crowd to cheer for those it "idolized," including Bradley Manning and Snowden. (Both names spurred extended applause.) Also part of the program: a woman explaining the legal rights of the marchers and offering phone numbers for legal support in case of arrests. (One young woman, no doubt an Occupy veteran, had come prepared, with the numbers written on her arm.) Such instructions were unnecessary; once the march started it stuck to sidewalks, stopping at street lights as requested by the police. The cops' belts were decorated with dozens of zip-ties anyway, just in case.

While Rev. Billy spoke, a man in a nurses' uniform walked up to a man in the crowd. "Occupy Wall Street?" the nurse asked. "No," the protestor responded. "It's about the NSA spying on Americans."

Nurse: "They've been doing that for years."
Protestor: "But now they have the tools to record your conversations."
Nurse: "Didn't you know that?"
Protestor: "But they're not supposed to."

The protestor gave the nurse a light, and then excused himself.

Several protestors seemed to balk at the Occupy association. One, Greg from New Jersey (who'd made a camera-hat out of "stuff I had in my room") said he would never march with Occupy, a group whose ideas were "too loosely based." He'd found out about the march on Reddit. Another, Jim Stevenson, wore the uniform he'd earned as an Eagle Scout. "I felt that during Occupy Wall Street, people weren't representing themselves well," he said. "I wanted to associate [the protest] with everything people respect in the country."

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The march began, stretching for multiple blocks. "2 4 6 8 This is worse than Watergate." "This is what democracy looks like." "NSA don't spy on me / Set Edward Snowden free." Marchers paused briefly when walking in front of air-conditioned stores with their doors open. At one point, two teenage girls stepped out right in front of the crowd, catching a glimpse of the "Yes We Scan" banner being held by several of the box-headed security cameras. "Oh my god!" one exclaimed. The other grabbed her arm. "Vicki!" They laughed and ran across the street.

Lined at the curb by cops on scooters, the protestors headed south down Broadway, headed for Federal Hall at Wall Street and Broad. This is an historic location in the city, the site of the inauguration of George Washington (there's another statue of him there) and of a bombing by anarchists in 1920. But more significantly, it's where the Bill of Rights was introduced to the first Congress in 1789. Which is exactly where the people were trying to get.

       

France Says 'No' to Snowden After They're Busted for Spying, Too

On the same day Le Monde revealed the French intelligence service has a domestic spying program that sounds a whole lot like the National Security Agency's operation, France's interior Ministry confirmed it received and then denied an asylum request from leaker Edward Snowden. 

Edward Snowden has been desperately trying to find a country that would, perhaps, agree to house him after he leaked confidential NSA documents. Snowden is still in a waiting area at a Russian airport since fleeing Hong Kong. (Supposedly.)

The French interior ministry revealed for the first time today that they     

There Were 25 FCC Complaints Over Big Papi's Boston Rallying Curse

In the wake of the Boston Marathon attacks, a local legend rallied a city that was still in the middle of a very delicate healing process after two men attacked one of the city's most cherished traditions. But that didn't stop 25 Americans from begging the FCC to think of the children. 

Deadspin's Barry Petchesky filed a Freedom of Information Act request for each and every complaint the Federal Communications Commission received about that time David Ortiz said "fuck" on national television. It was April 20, the day after Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was apprehended in a wild late night shoot out, and the Boston Red Sox were returning to Boston for the first time since the attacks at the marathon. They had spent the previous week away from their beloved city on a gruelling road trip. During the pre-game ceremony, Ortiz addressed the raucous crowd at Fenway.

"Alright, Boston. This jersey that we're wearing today, it doesn't say Red Sox. It says Boston," Ortiz told the Fenway faithful. "We want to thank Mayor Menino, Governor Patrick, and the whole police department for the great job they did this past week. This is our fucking city, and nobody is going to dictate our freedom. Stay strong." Boom. The crowd would have torn the roof off Fenway, if Fenway had a roof in the first place. 

It was a beautiful moment where a local hero -- a man as connected to Boston as Dunkin Donuts or the marathon itself -- gave a town something to cheer for when they needed it the most. Shortly after Big Papi's big speech, FCC chairman Julius Genachowski, who Petchesky astutely points out is a Brookline, Mass., native, tweeted his seal of approval. This was a special moment and the Red Sox would not be fined. 

But, yeah, the game was on national TV and the Mrs. Lovejoys of the world didn't see it the same way. At least 25 people still called the FCC to complain that "fuck" had made its way onto the airwaves and, tragedy or no, this could not stand. Some complaints are measured; others are maniacal. You can check them all out right here. Our favorite came from a rather unhinged seeming person in Saratoga Springs, New York, whose complaint is far worse than what Papi said on TV: 

Julius should be fired!! Glad he feels this doesn't fit the guidelines, you're organization is like your leader a fucking joke. FUCKING joke!! I hope Julius gets FUCKING cancer and dies!! Please understand I'm under a lot of FUCKING stress!

Must be a Yankee fan. 

       

Jay-Z's Big Samsung Album Release Was a Disaster

Jay-Z's hyped-to-death new album Magna Carta Holy Grail was set to finally drop last night for a million lucky Samsung Galaxy users, except things didn't go as planned when the special app was supposed to unlock the album at 12:01 a.m. ET. The clock finally ticked past midnight Wednesday night (or was it Thursday morning?) and the God MC's new album was finally, supposedly available to the world. Except so many people were flooding the app with download requests that it crashed, leaving many people who stayed up late to have the first opinions, which are obviously the most important kind of opinions,  about Magna Carta were left in the cold.

Woah. We broke the Internet. "#MagnaCarta Holy Grail" is almost here.

— Samsung Mobile US (@SamsungMobileUS) July 4, 2013

"Disappointed fanatics hit Twitter crying foul with a exciting rollout that didn't work as advertised. Many Samsung users were left without the album they were expecting," MTV's Rob Markman reports. Listeners were forced to tune into Funk Master Flex's radio show on New York's Hot 97 to hear the album for the first time. Flex delivered one of his epic rants before playing the album in its entirety well into the wee hours of Thursday morning. Complex gathered a collection of Twitter's first reactions here, mostly from people who were tuning in via Flex's show.

The first single, "Holy Grail" featuring Justin Timberlake, was posted to the biggest rap blogs pretty quickly. As Samsung got its act together Thursday morning, users who downloaded the app were eventually able to hear the album when they woke up for breakfast. Whether or not Magna Carta Holy Grail is Kingdom Come or a Black Album on Jay-Z's record, well, we'll have to wait. For now, there's some Reasonable Doubt.