Note to RNC: Color is not the answer

Recently, Barack Obama became the nation's first African-American President. Just on Friday, former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele became the first African-American chair of the Republican National Committee. I am sure that people behind the RNC worked to make sure that he would gain the position. They believe that he will help bring African-Americans into the Republican circle. Frankly, this is a pathetic move since the ideals of the Republican party are just plain out of date and out of touch with the current world. If they think that having a person of the same race as the President will help, then they are just merely hiding centuries-old problems with a new color.

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Maybe the Third Time's the Charm

1996: New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority gives up on a project to provide real-time arrival times for buses.

2009: MTA calls it quits after a $14 million pilot program which they said the times were inaccurate.

Will we ever get bus arrival signs? The new bus stops, designed by CEMUSA, include a small, rectangular box on top of the adspace for future inclusion of such a sign. The added height to the covering of the bus stop because of this extra box lets in more rain and snow, and now that these signs won't be in place, it just seems annoying. What a waste...


>>>NY1:MTA Pulls The Plug On Bus Tracking, Again

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TIME Cartoons: Do You Swear...

My favorites from TIME Cartoons of the Week:


Seriously, what will they make fun of? Jay Leno's probably relieved, he's leaving in May.


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Circuit City Closing Bad for Consumers

On Friday, Circuit City, the nation's second-largest electronics retailer, announced that it would close all of its 500+ U.S. stores. This effectively leads to 34,000 people being laid off and opens the way for Best Buy, the largest retailer, to increase their prices as their competition has decreased. This market became even more oligopolistic (few sellers) and will also be even tougher for the already sluggish economy. Yesterday, I ventured to a Circuit City in Union Square and also in Midtown to find extremely long lines and huge crowds. The liquidators in charge of the chain plan to close each store either when their merchandise runs out or by the end of March, whichever arrives first. My bet is, according to my experience yesterday, most stores in urban areas will close in less than 2 weeks.

In a later post, I'll talk about my experience at Best Buy later that day and how their customer service may already be taking a hit.

NEWSFLASH: US Airways Flight Crashes in Hudson River, 155 Survive

At around 3:30 PM, US Airways flight 1549 from LaGuardia Airport in New York City bound for Charlotte, North Carolina had a "controlled landing" in the Hudson River. The pilots had reported earlier that the plane, an Airbus A320, came across large groups of birds and eyewitnesses reported an explosion from the engines shortly before it hit the water, consistent with engine failure due to encounters with birds. The water temperature was approximately 11* F at the time of the crash and early recovery operations. The plane remained afloat, tail down, throughout the rescue operations. Local ferries responded quickly to the downed plane by suspending all service from their 39th Street Terminal and using them to rescue the approximately 155 life-jacket-wearing passengers and crew. Authorities such as the NYPD, FDNY, Red Cross, and state agencies also came to the plane's aid quickly. Several tugboats were seen latching onto the plane to keep it afloat. Survivors were taken to various area hospitals in NYC and New Jersey. Mayor Michael Bloomberg held a news conference at around 6 PM gave a briefing of the events while commending the rescuers involved. The mayor, an experienced air pilot, also stressed that air travel was safe and that there were indications at the time that terrorism was involved. He also stated that not enough information was available at the time and that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is heading to NYC to investigate. Governor David Patterson said that it was a "miracle on the Hudson."

>>>US Airways Website
>>>ABCNews: 'Happy to Be Alive': Dramatic Rescue After US Airways Jet Crash Into Hudson River

Updated 6:30PM

Bush's Last Press Conference A Doozy

This morning, President Bush gave his last scheduled press conference. I saw a few minutes of it and wow, he really is just horrible without his prompters (not that those make him look good anyways.) He was not only stubborn, but just plain boastful of some of his exaggerated actions that he took while in office. Among some of his key phrases that will surely make it onto the Daily Show with Jon Stewart:
"Not having weapons of mass destruction was a huge disappointment" - this is surely like a Sarah Palinesque phrase...so he's saying that if there were WMDs that could have potentially killed or injured many people, it would be a good thing?

>>>ABCNews: Bush Holds Final News Conference

Back from a Trip

Hi all, I'm back from my long trip to Hong Kong and Shanghai! Jet lag is starting to kick in, especially in the evenings and I already miss the awesome food and places in HK. I'll give some detail about some generalities about what they call themselves "Asia's World City" soon, and some pictures/videos (if I'm not too lazy to start organizing and uploading them.)