Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 937
September 18, 2013
Five Best Wednesday Columns
Dave Cullen at Buzzfeed proposes that we stop naming the perpetrators of mass shootings. Cullen, who wrote Columbine, argues that mass killers are "seeking attention" and that "we keep encouraging them." In the wake of the D.C. Navy Yard shooting, Cullen thinks the only way we can discourage these events from happening is to stop naming killers in reports. Cullen claims he's already done this himself for over a year, using only "the perpetrator" or "the gunman" in interviews. He suggests using the killer's name sparingly for the first 48 hours after a shooting and then stopping all use. Anthony de Rosa, the editor-in-chief of Circa, agrees: "Stop giving mass killers the fame and attention they seek." Even actress Mia Farrow weighed in, tweeting: "Mass shooters seek attention . . . can't we please stop naming them." Carina MacKenzie, a staff editor at the TV news site Zap2it, is more skeptical: "An interesting point, but Dave Cullen wrote a bestselling book about the Columbine shooters. Motives. Methods. Names."
The U.N.'s Case Against Syria Is Hidden in the Details
Although it officially takes no stance on the culprit behind the August 21 chemical attack in Syria, two separate examinations of the U.N. report uncovered small details that suggest Syria's military was almost certainly behind the attack. The New York Times' C.J. Chivers and Human Rights Watch's Josh Lyons, a satellite imagery specialist, examined details buried in the U.N. report released Tuesday that concluded definitively chemical weapons were used in Syria without implicating either side. Both came to the same conclusion through separate, independent investigations: the rockets carrying sarin gas were fired from Syria's Mount Qasioun, where on one side rests the Presidential Palace, on the other a so-far-impregnable regime military base where the Republican Guard 104th Brigade is stationed. "Connecting the dots provided by these numbers allows us to see for ourselves where the rockets were likely launched from and who was responsible," Lyons said in a statement on Tuesday.
U.N. inspectors included details about the angles of the rockets, both how they landed and the direction they seemingly came from. The U.N., Chivers and Lyons stop short of declaring that the rockets definitely came from Syrian military outposts, but they make a very strong case, as explained here by Shivers with a map illustrated by Lyons:
[image error]At one impact site, investigators found both the place where the rocket had passed through a “vegetal screen” above a wall just before it hit the ground, and the small impact crater itself.
They noted that “the line linking the crater and the piercing of the vegetal screen can be conclusively established and has a bearing of 35 degrees.”
At another impact area in another section of Damascus, a 330-millimeter rocket landed on what investigators described as “earthy, relatively soft ground, where the shaft/engine of the projectile remained dug in, undisturbed until investigated.”
The rocket’s shaft, the investigators noted, “pointed precisely in a bearing of 285 degrees.”
Chivers and Lyons can't say this proves Syria's military, and by extension president Bashar al-Assad, was responsible for the attack. "This isn't conclusive, given the limited data available to the UN team, Lyons said, "but it is highly suggestive and another piece of the puzzle." A senior American intelligence official told Chivers that U.S. satellite data "confirmed rocket launches that corroborated the United Nations data and the Human Rights Watch analysis for one of the strikes."
After weeks of telling the world to wait for the U.N. report before drawing any conclusions, Russia decried the report Tuesday morning for being biased and inconclusive. "We are disappointed, to put it mildly, about the approach taken by the U.N. secretariat and the U.N. inspectors, who prepared the report selectively and incompletely," deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. (He also happens to be in Syria for talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem.) "Without receiving a full picture of what is happening here, it is impossible to call the nature of the conclusions reached by the U.N. experts ... anything but politicised, preconceived and one-sided," Ryabkov said. Ryabkov also claimed Russia has evidence that rebel forces were behind the attack. Maybe he didn't appreciate the Cyrillic markings that seemingly connected the rockets to Russia.
Assad, for one, thanked Russia for its continued support through this "savage attack."
Zac Efron Battled Cocaine in Rehab
Oof. Yesterday the news somehow leaked that Zac Efron, elfin-faced High School Musical star turned movie star hunk, spent some time in rehab about five months ago. At first various outlets were saying that it was for alcohol abuse, but now it seems that it was actually for cocaine, which he was using pretty heavily while shooting the Seth Rogen comedy Neighbors (originally called Townies). There's also talk of Molly/MDMA and a trashed Las Vegas hotel room. During the Neighbors film shoot, "It was common knowledge he was struggling with cocaine," according to some TMZ source. So, that's sad. But good that he went to rehab and seems to be doing better now. What is he, 25? He should be OK. That's pretty young to seek treatment, so hopefully he was being more proactive than reacting to some rock-bottom moment. Who knows, though. This should probably be all we say about the matter, right? Unless he offers up some information himself, I guess. Anyway, that's the deal with that. Sad story with a tentatively good ending. [TMZ]
OK, let's move on to the actually serious stuff. Did the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge not actually meet the way they have always said they did? Meaning, William and Kate always say that they met at St. Andrews, became pals, then roommates, then loversss. (Not just-the-two-of-them roommates, they lived in a house with a bunch of mates.) But now a new book called Kate: The Future Queen posits that the two actually met several years before, through friends. Hm, OK. But then! Then the story goes that Kate was supposed to go to Edinburgh, not St. Andrews, but at the last minute took a gap year and reapplied to St. Andrews in the hopes of going the next year, which she did. This was after it was announced that Prince William would be a student there. So... Is it possible. Is. It. Possible. That Catherine Middleton, humble heiress to a party supply fortune, deliberately changed the path of her life so it would cross Prince William's? Might that be the case? Has this been engineered all along? Was this always the Middleton plot? And if so, to what end? What is the Middleton family's endgame here? And what will become of this author, who has exposed this shocking truth? "Mother, did you see? Did you see??" Kate hisses into the phone, hiding in an old stone stairwell in the palace. "What do we do?" "Calm down, girl," her mother barks. "You're to be queen one day and you should start acting like it. Call Helmsley. He was in Scotland Yard. He knows how to find people. How to be discreet. He'll... settle the matter and you can return to focusing on what's important. We've the child now. We need only two more things. You must get the scepter and the book by the last moon of this year or all is lost. Do you hear me? All this family has worked for for centuries will have been for nothing, nothing! So get yourself together and take care of this. Honestly, Catherine. I thought you had the stuff for this. It could have been Pippa, you know. We could have chosen Pippa. But we didn't. We chose you. Don't prove us fools." Kate sniffles, nods her head. "Yes, mother. You're right, mother. I'll do as told. I'll call Helmsley and everything will be OK. Thank you, mother. Thank you ever so much." She hangs up the phone, collects herself, and walks back up the stairs, the heavy wood door creaking behind her as he strides, regal again, back into the palace. [Us Weekly]
Another nefarious plot. Russell Simmons and his girlfriend Hana Nitsche recently refused to pay a $5,000 ransom for their dog. They refused not because they are cheapskates but because the family that "rescued" the dog sounded super shady. Like they used a voice-disguiser and wanted a drop location for the money and a separate one to pick up the dog, and they wanted Nitsche to come alone and they said no police. So that is pretty suspicious! But don't worry, Nitsche instead showed up to the house with a private bodyguard service and they stormed in and took the damn dog back. Victory! The family still claims that they were just trying to do the right thing, but c'mon. Just give the dog back and if they give you a reward, all the better. You've done a good thing and gotten some money. But either way, you return the dog. If you want to be good people. That's all. [Page Six]
Oh look. Rashida Jones has a new boyfriend. And he's the most Rashida Jonesy boyfriend imaginable. He's a hunk with nerd glasses who writes comedy. Yup. She is dating Saturday Night Live writer Colin Jost, a fellow Harvard alum, though he graduated in '04 and she graduated in '97. But that's OK. Look at them together. That is what Colin Jost was born to do, to date Rashida Jones. That's all. That was the whole point of Colin Jost. And now he's done. [Us Weekly]
Ha! Jennifer Aniston has a "crust-punk" half-brother! This is what the Daily Mail is very eager to report to you! Jennifer Aniston, tanned beach goddess for the ages, tart lemon-scented American sweetheart, has a 24-year-old half-brother who has crazy hair and gauged ears and has been photographed cavorting, shirtless and tattooed, around Burning Man. The Daily Mail tried to talk to Crust-Punk (his name is AJ) at Burning Man, but all he said was, "It’s been happening since middle school (people asking about Jennifer). It’s been a pain in my ass for years. No comment." When asked if he'd ever talk about it, he said "Never." So, they had to turn to a so-called friend, who said things like "I don't know the whole situation or what the state of the relationship with his family, but I think probably his dad helps him out with money, I just have a feeling." Great friend! Really good friend. Anyway, we should probably leave this guy alone, right? What's he done to deserve tabloid attention beyond being born? Let's let him crust around the desert in peace, his "Down to Cuddle" tattoo just above his privates attracting just the right kind of women, his hair flapping in the wind, goggles on and ready for the day. That's all he wants. [Daily Mail]
Tom Friedman Found a Service Worker Who Can't Explain the World
This morning, Tom Friedman spent close to 300 words in his New York Times column to tell you the fact that President Barack Obama does not have pink hair. "Barack Obama once had black hair. But his is gray now, not pink. That’s also the tax you pay for thinking about the Middle East too much: It leads to either gray hair or no hair, but not pink hair," Friedman writes with this preface:
I was at a conference in Bern, Switzerland, last week and struggling with my column.
Friedman has always tried to convince us that his way of moseying in sideways into serious national conversations with anecdotes about his daughter's roommate, a Mariott hotel clerk, and, famously, his taxi driver weren't signs of laziness of a writer trying to smash a column together, but rather, a feature.
And Friedman has made a career spinning those chats with industry employees into gold. That Mariott hotel clerk gave him the chance to plunk down words about the Egyptian crisis. And sometimes they don't even need to interact with him. In one of his most popular "ask a cabbie, get a lede" episode, his Parisian driver was actively ignoring him. That didn't stop Friedman from writing about him and imagining a narrative. "It’s a pity. He was a young, French-speaking African, who probably had a lot to tell me," Friedman wrote in 2006, waxing on the sadness of Bluetooth.
When Friedman really struggles, apparently his props people just need to have a different hair color. He writes:
To clear my head, I went for a walk along the Aare River, on Schifflaube Street. Along the way, I found a small grocery shop and stopped to buy some nectarines. As I went to pay, I was looking down, fishing for my Swiss francs, and when I looked up at the cashier, I was taken aback: He had pink hair. A huge shock of neon pink hair — very Euro-punk from the ’90s. While he was ringing me up, a young woman walked by, and he blew her a kiss through the window — not a care in the world.
Friedman's Carrie Bradshaw moment has the Internet calling this column "Peak Friedman" — a so on-the-nose caricature of Friedman unknowingly written by Friedman himself. And it might just be too convenient.
As some have pointed out and rationalized, Friedman could be smarter than we give him credit for, and his opening paragraphs could just be an elaborate and self-aware exercise in trolling. After all, pretty much everyone that made it past those lead paragraphs are in agreement that the rest of his column is pretty good.
Everything You Need to Know about the iPhone 5C and 5S Reviews in One Table
With Apple's two new iPhones set to go on sale in just two days, the tech reviewers have given interested consumers far too many words to read about the iPhone 5S and 5C. For interested iPhone buyers unable to spend hours parsing these in depth takes, the Atlantic Wire has put together one table with all the most important information about the new devices. After reading through multiple reviews from The New York Times, AllThingsD Daring Fireball, Anandtech, and many others, we've pulled the best, most indicative lines of the most important features and put them in one easy-to-read place.
tr { border-top: 1px solid #ccc !important; } td { vertical-align: top !important; } td a, td a:active, td a:visited { text-decoration: none !important; } td a:hover { text-decoration: underline !important; } iPhone 5S iPhone 5C Battery Life "Apple says battery life is about 25 percent better than before; I’ve been getting nearly two days of moderate use on a charge." "Its performance, battery life and camera quality are all on par with the 5." Speed "This iPhone 5S is fast.... The iPhone 5S is, in some measures, computationally superior to the top-of-the-line MacBook Pro from just five years ago. In your fucking pocket." "The iPhone 5C has the same A6 processor and the same 4-inch Retina display as the iPhone 5." Fingerprint Scanner "It became very clear how much I used the fingerprint sensor when I would pick up the iPhone 5c and wonder why the sensor wasn’t working. Of course, only the 5s has the sensor, but that’s how quickly I became used to having that option." N/A Display "For anyone who needs copious amounts of screen space, a 4-inch display likely won't cut it, but to be fair, the 5s is the best small phone you can get -- we can't think of any other device with a display smaller than 4.5 inches that even comes close." "In an unusual turn of events, my iPhone 5c sample came with an even better calibrated display than my 5s sample. It's a tradeoff - the 5cpanel I had could go way brighter than the 5s panel, but its black levels were also higher." Camera "The new camera will mean more to you. Its sensor is 15 percent bigger, and the individual light-detecting pixels are bigger. Take photos side-by-side with the iPhone 5S’s predecessor, and the difference is immediately obvious; lowlight pictures are far better on the new phone. Clearer, brighter, better color." "I’ve been using the new iPhone 5c for the past five days and it’s a solid premium phone. Its hardware improvements include longer battery life, better cellular-data capabilities and a better front-facing camera, for FaceTime and “selfies,” or photos you take of yourself." Overall Look "It’s hard not to wax too poetic about the iPhone 5s design; the color-matched conductive ring around the home button/fingerprint sensor adds a lot to the overall good looks of the device, and the new space gray finish that I reviewed is more visually striking than the black it replaces. It also seems more resistant to wear" "It feels slick but not slippery. Feel-wise it’s not too dissimilar from the old 3G and 3GS (both of which I still have sitting here in my office), but it presents a far more premium overall effect than those previous forays into plastic iPhones."
In short: The iPhone 5C is a $100 (on contract) iPhone 5 with minor improvements, dressed up in a different, but still delightful outfit. For those looking to get the latest and greatest, the iPhone 5S updates all the most important aspects of the 5 — camera, battery life, processor speed — and includes some other useful improvements, like the fingerprint sensor, which all the reviewers surprisingly like. "It’s honestly the first fingerprint scanner system that I would use on a regular basis," wrote Anandtech's Anand Lal Shimpi.
If this table doesn't satisfy, for those looking for further reading, here are our recommendations:
Most In-depth: Head to Anandtech for an incredibly in-depth, but well organized iPhone 5S review. Best Fanboy Take: Daring Fireball's John Gruber is loyal, but smart. The New York Times's David Pogue has the best lay-man's take, from a fanboy. The Best Bottom Line: Walt Mossberg over at The Wall Street Journal does it short and sweet.Happy shopping.
Beijing Trumpets 'Full Freedom' Amidst an Internet Crackdown
In China, “people enjoy full freedom on the Internet,” an official from the Ministry of Information told Indian reporters during a visit to Mumbai this week, according to DNA, a news outlet in India. “The perception that the government has placed any restrictions on the Internet is untrue,” he said, adding that China’s media had the same freedom as any others, except they must “avoid fabrication of stories” and “be socially responsible by not aggravating any issue.”
The reassurances comes as Beijing has embarked on a widespread crackdown on information on the internet, including the detention of several high-profile online commentators, known as Big Vs, and the threat of jail time for authors of posts that are untrue if they’re widely viewed or shared.
The official’s words mirrored a finger-wagging editorial in the Global Times, a state-run newspaper, which appeared today. It notes that it “is true that government authorities are intensifying administration over the Internet,” but called it a “necessary and justified effort.” And, it said, everyone is getting it wrong:
The connection between this crackdown campaign and the detentions and controls over these web celebrities is not what really matters. People’s attention should be focused on whether they have violated the law.
China’s legal construction has made breakthroughs in these years. It is unthinkable that the authorities to [sic] fabricate a large number of injustices for some political purposes in the eyes of enlightened Chinese people. Such ideas are paranoia.
The editorial appeared hours after the detention of a popular blogger Wu Dong, also known Huazong or Boss Hua, who was being interrogated by Beijing police, a state-run paper said. Huazong “became famous last year after he started identifying the luxury watches worn by officials in photographs posted online,” The Wall Street Journal noted. This identification helped bring down an official known as “Brother Watch” for his large collection. Huazong was careful about his targets, he said in this 2011 interview (in Chinese), not aiming at the most powerful people, and taking down posts when the government asked.
Perhaps that’s one reason why Hua, who was detained Tuesday night, was freed on Wednesday afternoon, which he announced to his 250,000 followers on Sina Weibo with a short message “I’m freed, thanks.”
The internet crackdown been criticized by activists and academics inside and outside China as well as some of the country’s own courts. Earlier this month, the official website of the Guangdong People’s Supreme Court quoted from “an ancient Chinese story from 542 B.C.” that appeared to be mocking the crackdown, Beijing Cream wrote. In the story a powerful politician refuses to stop town hall meetings where he is being criticized, saying “Criticism is like a river. To block a river won’t work.”
The title of the story, “Zichan Won’t Abolish Town Hall,” was quickly banned on Weibo, Beijing Cream noted.
Ivy Chen contributed reporting.
Rejoice, Rich New Yorkers: The Rainbow Room Is Returning
During the economic downturn in 2009, the legendary Rainbow Room towards the top of 30 Rockefeller Plaza shut its doors. But the colorful dinner and dance hall will re-open next fall with a nice renovation — at least for those who can afford those expensive plates.
And there will be plenty of new reasons to check out the new and improved Rainbow Room. With the re-opening, the new outlay will include an outdoor terrace looking out on the concrete jungle of New York City, as well as a bar-lounge combo open to the public five nights a week. But its core room will mostly be for its private diners, likely with some hot-shot musicians, building off of its history of featuring performers like Louis Armstrong and Tony Bennett back in the day.
[image error]The Rainbow Room had been a mainstay of upper-class New York since it opened toward the end of Prohibition in 1934. The name comes from the lighting effects of the floor and a large color organ that synchronizes with the musical beats. It originally cost $3.50 for dinner — which comes out to about $61 in inflation-adjusted 2013 money — a significant sum for a family in the midst of the Great Depression. Those prices have only gone up, though, and dinner for two cost about $600 back in 2009. With this new renovation and reopening, that will probably be near the same, if not more.
A tenant-landlord disagreement and economic struggles forced its closure that year, but the room has been on a slowly bubbling rise since. It was granted landmark status in New York in 2012 as it epitomized the best of New York, and the revamp of the room will be undertaken by Elizabeth Blau, one of the key figures behind the culinary rise of Las Vegas.
With its location at 30 Rock, NBC execs and actors will likely be pleased. And with its high-class clientele, it's a place Jack Donaghy could only adore.
(Photo of NBC Studios: AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, file)
'The Daily Show' Speculates on CNN's Speculation
As Monday's tragedy at the Washington Navy Yard unfolded, law enforcement officers repeatedly had to tell civilians to not trust information coming from unofficial sources, meaning cable news and the Wolf Blitzers of the world. When the FBI tells you you're doing your job wrong it might be time to reflect, but luckily cable news has Jon Stewart to do that for them.
"For sheer accumulation of breathless wrongness, there's only one place that matters," Stewart said, cutting to a clip of a CNN anchor "reporting" from somewhere near the Navy Yard. And by reporting, we mean naming everything in sight: police officers running towards... something, helicopters possibly of the rescue variety, flashing lights flashing, etc. "Those aren't interesting developments. You're just standing in front of a camera naming s*** you see," Stewart said. "It's like walking down the street with a 5-year-old. 'Police car. Fire hydrant.'"
[image error]Another CNN anchor talked to three different sources to find out how large the Navy Yard is, including one source who was busy talking to her sources. Google might have been faster. And then there was Wolf, who asked if we could begin to draw any "initial conclusions" based on the fact that the shooter was wearing a black shirt and black pants. "What does a black top and black pants say about possible motive? I don't know, why don't you ask your best colleague?" Stewart responded.
To get at the heart of CNN's problem, Stewart sent The Best F#@king News Team Ever down to CNN studios to break some news (really, they were literally outside CNN's New York office). Here's what they gathered:
John Oliver estimated that the CNN building is 30,000 feet tall, but "the situation here, on the streets, is fluid." Samantha Bee found a completely unrelated building. "This could be the wrong building, it is far too early to speculate." Jason Jones saw "a yellow car, a grey car, a bicycle car, all heading in the same direction. We don't know where they're going. They could be fleeing, possibly a fire, maybe a Godzilla. We can't confirm anything at this time."In a way, CNN is low hanging fruit for The Daily Show, but the chaotic environment — that breeds misinformation — isn't an accident. After their disastrous Boston bombing coverage, Jeff Zucker noted that the coverage netted them their biggest audience in ten years. "Oh my god. The lesson they take from this is that it doesn't matter how much they betray our trust, because we'll keep coming back," Stewart said. "We're in an abusive relationship with CNN, and it's time we kicked those bastards to the curb."
September 17, 2013
Bloomingdale's Won't Let You Wear-and-Return Party Dresses Anymore
Fancy department store Bloomingdale's is rolling out a new "black tag" program, Bloomberg reports, to combat fraudsters who buy a dress just to wear it once and return it. This kind of fraud, called "wardrobing," cost the retail industry $8.8 billion last year, and it affects 65% of all retail stores. Bloomie's debut of their new loss-prevention program at a key time before holiday parties start — the perfect season to buy a dress, wear it, and then get your money back.
The black tags, which are three inches in length, will be attached to expensive items like prom dresses. They'll be visible on the front of a dress, and if a customer removes the tag, he or she can't then return the item. The practice will probably help the department store stop hemorrhaging money, but it will also turn off customers. Rich Mellor, vice president of loss prevention at the National Retail Federation, told Bloomberg, "it is a delicate balance of loss prevention and good customer service, and the relationship has to be handled with appropriate finesse.” Apparently, some customers are already complaining.
Nordstrom, another retail giant, isn't changing its policy, which is basically, "return anything!" Once, a man successfully returned a set of snow tires to a Nordstrom in Alaska, even though the department store has never sold tires. Nordstrom spokesman Cole Johnson told Bloomberg, “our experience is that if you treat the customer with respect, they respect you back.”
Photo by bikeriderlondon via Shutterstock.
'Homeland' Is Moving Production Out of Israel Over Syria Fears
Though the Homeland crew was scheduled to return to Israel to film parts of the show's third season, Showtime's is moving production to Morocco because of concerns related to the ongoing crisis in Syria, according to a report from Israeli news site Ynet. The move, per one of Ynet's sources, is apparently "frustrating" to Israeli producers, who were told over the weekend of the change. The Israeli production company lost "hundreds of thousands of shekels following" the swap.
Homeland mostly films in North Carolina, but shot portions of both of its previous seasons in Israel. Last year, Israel acted as a stand in for Lebanon. No one is sure how Morocco is going to pay into the plot of the third season, which begins on September 29, or whether it might be a replacement for some other country. Knowing Homeland, Morocco might even be masquerading as Syria.
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