On the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, as the nation reflected on its losses, thousands of families gathered at the new World Trade Center rising in Lower Manhattan, at the Pentagon and on a field of wildflowers in Pennsylvania to commemorate nearly 3,000 killed on that infamous morning when jetliners were turned into missiles and a new age of terrorism was born.

The day’s centerpiece unfolded at ground zero, where more than 10,000 members of the victims’ families, and some dignitaries and their wives, gathered in a parklike setting of swamp white oaks and emerald lawns — a strangely futuristic plaza with precisely spaced trees rising from a five-acre granite floor, surrounded by a gouged wasteland of unfinished skyscrapers and silent construction cranes.

Excerpted from ‘On 9/11, Vows of Remembrance’ by Robert D. McFadden. Published September 11, 2011 in the New York Times.

Behind the lunch counter at Ida’s Country Store at the corner of Main Street and Stutzmantown Road, Tammy was wrapping ham and cheese sandwiches in advance of what passes for the noontime rush in Shanksville, population 250. The lifelong resident of this sleepy mountain town tucked in the Laurel Highlands of southwestern Pennsylvania is happy to give directions, share a joke or dispense unsolicited advice to strangers, but she won’t give up her last name.

And her age?

“Old enough to know better,” she chirped, drawing a cackle from Missy Brant, 38, who was shaving carrots in the kitchen. Tammy talked to the media a lot in the months after the “incident” that made Shanksville an international destination for pilgrims seeking to understand America by standing at the edge of one of its worst wounds. She has “googled” herself a few times since, however, and unhappily found that her name has been broadcast around the world.

Folks around here value their privacy, Tammy explained, and they are determined to preserve it even as bulldozers and mounds of federal and donated dollars raise the monument that will make Shanksville a tourist attraction rivaling Gettysburg. Swarms of tourists will soon descend on her hometown, most who will neither know nor care what was there before tragedy put it on the international roadmap.

Excerpted from ‘Sept. 11: Ten years later, a nation of resolve‘ by Christopher J. Kelly. Published in the Pottsville Republican-Herald on September 11, 2011.

Tropical Storm Irene’s swipe at the Big Apple proved Sunday that New Yorkers can be a tough crowd to impress.

“I slept through the whole thing,” said James Trager, a writer who watched nature’s display of fury as it took place outside the windows of his apartment in Midtown and gave a tepid review: “Nothing. It’s exaggerated.”

“I think we’re all surprised how relatively quickly the storm blew through here and the rain stopped,” said Steve Kastenbaum, a national correspondent for CNN radio, who watched the storm from the comfort of his apartment in the Boerum Hill section of Brooklyn.

He said he saw lots of local street flooding and branches in the streets, but few uprooted trees; during the height of the storm, people were walking on the street. “I even saw one or two folks taking a jog,” he said. “I kid you not. Pretty typical for Brooklyn. They’re not going to let anybody get in their way.”

Excerpted from ‘Irene fails to wow New Yorkers‘ by the CNN Wire Staff. Appearing on August 28, 2011, on CNN.com.

NEW YORK — Anyone looking to find this city’s most amazing art studio can stop right now.

It is, without a doubt, the 48th floor of 7 World Trade Center. Here, near the top of this 52-story office building, with sweeping views of the former site of the Twin Towers, the construction of 1 World Trade Center and all of the rest of Manhattan, the developer Larry Silverstein has allowed a group of artists to work free of charge until the space is leased to a tenant.

The bare-floored studio, completely empty and open, with fireproofed beams still visible and floor-to-ceiling windows, has been something of a home to Todd Stone and the other artists who have worked there. Now Stone’s paintings are the subject of an exhibition, “Witness || Downtown Rising,” on view until September 12 but open by invitation only.

Excerpted from ‘Todd Stone Paintings Show World Trade Center Burning And Rising‘ by Paul Needham. Published in The Huffington Post on July 29, 2011.

And every year these professionals would say the same thing, just keep making the saws as durable as possible and they will keep buying them. Keep in mind there was no such thing as an electric chainsaw back then. Every saw was built around a crude two-stroke gasoline engine that belched smoke and screamed like a wild banshee, neither of which mattered one iota to professional lumberjacks.

The problem, as Mr. Power saw it, wasn’t that McCulloch lost contact with its customers. Instead, the problem was who the company defined as a customer in the first place. Mr. Power and his contemporaries inside McCulloch’s research department understood there was another market for their chainsaws just sitting there ripe for the picking. By completely ignoring the growing segment of residential chainsaw owners, McCulloch not only failed to understand the needs of residential users, it never fully realized the potential size of the residential market. Unlike the professional lumbermen of the Northwest, residential users cared about things such as weight and noise. While their professional counterparts used these saws to clear entire forests, private homeowners were more concerned with pruning a few branches and cutting firewood, a fact that gave them an entirely different set of needs.

Excerpted from Satisfaction: How Every Great Company Listens to the Voice of the Customer by Chris Denove and James D. Power IV. Published by the Penguin Group, New York, 2006.

The department-store chain’s [Macy's] dashed hopes for a monumental backdrop for the display shows just how tricky it can be to navigate the logistical and political shoals of the city and its various, demanding precincts. In Brooklyn, resentment still lingers at the highest levels over Macy’s decision to move the fireworks from their longtime spot in the East River to the Hudson two years ago.

That move initially was presented as a one-time shift to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s landing in Manhattan. But Macy’s decided to keep the display on the west side of the island last year in anticipation of moving downriver to the statue this year. Now, Macy’s officials are mum about where they want to fire off their rockets next year, despite the parade of entreaties from Marty Markowitz, the borough president in Brooklyn.

Macy’s “should return the pyrotechnic spectacular to the East River or even New York Harbor, where it helps boost our city’s economy, bringing viewers out to the restaurants and riverfront nightspots of Brooklyn and the outer boroughs of Manhattan and Queens,” Mr. Markowitz said. “As it stands, the celebrants with the best views will once again be residents of New Jersey and the west side of Manhattan, excluding a large part of the city in which Macy’s has its flagship store.”

Excerpted from ‘Spurned by Lady Liberty, Macy’s Fireworks Show Stays Put‘ by Patrick McGeehan. Published July 1, 2011 in The New York Times.

PASADENA, Calif. — In just a few short minutes, Mexico turned the tables on the United States, then ran away with its second straight Gold Cup win.

This one means more than the title they took in 2009 against a second-team USA. Now El Tri gets to play in the 2013 Confederations Cup in Brazil a year before the World Cup.

Pablo Barrera scored twice for Mexico, which rallied to beat the United States 4-2 on Saturday night while most of the fans at the Rose Bowl roared approval.

Andres Guardado and Giovani Dos Santos also scored for Mexico, which has won two consecutive Gold Cup titles and six overall.

“They’re as dynamic as any Mexican team I’ve played against,” said Landon Donovan, who has played for the United States since 2000. “They’ve got a few guys who can change the game in a heartbeat.”

That’s almost exactly what happened over the course of seven minutes in the first half.

Excerpted from ‘Mexico rallies to Gold Cup crown‘ by the Associated Press, published June 26, 2011, on ESPN‘s Soccernet.

Cobi Jones, Eddie Pope and Earnie Stewart have been inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

Joining the players at a ceremony before the national team’s game against Spain on Saturday are Bruce Murray, inducted as a veteran, and Bob Gansler, who goes in as a builder.

Jones is the national team’s appearance leader. Pope was a stalwart of the U.S. defense for almost a decade, and is tied for most World Cup qualifying games in U.S. history. He’s the first three-time World Cup veteran to play his entire pro career in MLS.

Stewart is a three-time World Cup veteran, playing 101 games for the national team.

Murray was a midfielder and forward in the 1980s and 1990s. Gansler coached the national team at the 1990 World Cup.

The full text of ‘Cobi Jones heads Hall of Fame class‘ from the Associated Press as appearing on ESPN.com.

Higher gas prices are beginning to bite in new and unusual ways. Not only are prices going up at the pump, but they are being propelled upward for smaller, fuel efficient vehicles on used car lots nationwide. At the same time, there has been a spike in drivers trying to unload their gas guzzling SUVs.

Gas prices currently average $3.80 a gallon for unleaded regular, according to the AAA. That’s up 37% since last October 1. According to most experts, the stampede out of SUVs really begins when gas crosses the crucial threshold of $4 a gallon, which it has already breached in New York, California and Florida …

Interestingly, prices for used SUVs have not come down as much as small cars have gone up. That’s because they tend to be a lagging indicator of consumer demand. People who already own SUVs can use online calculators such as the one at edmunds.com to figure out how long it will take to pay for the cost of trading in a larger car for a smaller one. For example, a driver may still have a $20,000 loan on an SUV but a dealer will only offer him or her $18,000. Then there’s an extra $2,000-$4,000 for the newer smaller car. With higher gas prices, how many months of driving do you have to do to make that extra $4,000 for the smaller car worthwhile? It’s a complex calculation and many people decide it’s not worth the bother yet.

Excerpted from ‘Higher Gas Prices Raising the Cost of Smaller, Fuel-Efficient Used Cars‘ by Charles Wallace. Published by Daily Finance, April 14, 2011.

TOKYO — Efforts to stabilize the hobbled nuclear power plant in Fukushima hit a snag on Monday when engineers found that crucial machinery at one reactor requires repair, a process that will take two to three days, government officials said.

Another team of workers trying to repair a separate reactor was forced to evacuate in the afternoon after gray smoke rose from Reactor No. 3, said Tetsuro Fukuyama, deputy chief cabinet secretary. However, no explosion was heard and the emission ended by 6 p.m., NHK said. In a separate incident, the broadcaster cited the Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency as saying white smoke was coming from the No. 2 Reactor building. Significantly higher levels of radiation have not been detected around the two reactors, Mr. Fukuyama said …

Hundreds of employees from Tokyo Electric Power Company, which owns the disabled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, worked through the weekend to connect a mile-long high-voltage transmission line to Reactor No. 2 in hopes to restarting a cooling system that would help bring down the temperature in the facility’s reactor and spent fuel pool.

Excerpted from ‘New Repairs Delay Work at Crippled Nuclear Plant’ by Ken Belson, Hiroko Tabuchi and Norimitsu Onishi. Published March 21, 2011 in The New York Times.

The most emphatic evidence of the tenor of O’Connor’s narrative is his preference for a penitential rather than a legendary, purgatorial Lough Derg. Grappling with the origin of the name, “Saint Patrick’s Purgatory,” O’Connor provides two textual foundations for the purgatorial association: one is from “a Louvain treatise of the 17th century, called the ‘Mirror of Penance’ ”; the second is attributed to “Matthew of Paris, whose opinion is followed by Denis the Carthusian and St. Antoninus.” According to the text, Saint Patrick entered the cave “that the pains of Purgatory might be revealed to him.” Having been granted his request, he “ordered that henceforth the island should be made a terrestrial purgatory.” (Notice O’Connor’s care not to make the island the real, extraterrestrial purgatory.) According to the second version, the saint, frustrated by the unrepentant and skeptical Irish, prayed to gain the power to reveal to his flock “those pains and pleasures of the future life which he preached.” Granted this power, he struck the earth with his staff and a huge pit opened up “into which those who might enter truly repentant and remain there one whole day and night would be cleansed the offenses of their whole life.” Citing the textual foundation for the “very erroneous and misleading picture of Saint Patrick’s Purgatory,” O’Connor, as though having ceded ground to the enemy, immediately acts to reclaim an orthodoxy based in works, not fireworks.

Excerpted from Writing Lough Derg: from William Carleton to Seamus Heaney by Peggy O’Brien. Published by Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, New York, 2006.

1. Permit. No person shall use or discharge any fireworks within the city without a permit. (O.R., Sec. 247.)

2. July 4 exemption. No permit shall be required for the use and discharge of fireworks during a period of 24 hours covering the holiday known as the “Fourth of July,” where the quantity discharged does not exceed in wholesale market value the sum of $2. (O.R., Sec. 251.)

3. Police notification. All permits for the use and discharge of fireworks shall be issued in duplicate, and shall show the name of the holder of the permit, the names of his employees (if any) who are to discharge the fireworks and the numbers of their certificates of fitness (when required); the place and times of display; the quantity, kind and wholesale market value of the fireworks to be discharged, and the distance to be preserved between the place of discharge and the bystanders and nearby buildings. One of the duplicate permits shall be filed with the commanding officer of the police precinct within which the display is to be given, and shall be evidence of the right of the person named therein to give the display. (O.R., Sec. 250.)

Excerpted from The Charter of the City of New York, Chapter 466, Laws of 1901, with all Amendments to and Including 1915, and City Ordinances Charter Amendments. Published by the Eagle Building, Brooklyn, New York, 1915.

John Philip Sousa in 1906 (in)famously pointed out that recording devices were a danger to creativity. The quote is laughed at by many because it is similar to the statements at the top of this post. Not only does he predict creativity will be stifled: “These talking machines are going to ruin the artistic development of music in this country.” Sousa also makes the claim it will be total: “When I was a boy…in front of every house in the summer evenings, you would find young people together singing the songs of the day or old songs. Today you hear these infernal machines going night and day. We will not have a vocal cord left. The vocal cord will be eliminated by a process of evolution, as was the tail of man when he came from the ape.” …

However, his argument about total annihilation of creativity was bogus, and I think to do it now is even more ridiculous given the century-long conversation that has occurred. Be wary of closed systems: yes. Accept that future generations will only have gray paint and DRM’d pencils to choose from? Come on. You and I grew up (probably) punching Hayes AT codes into modems when others were out running around on the playground. And generations before us were soldering capacitors and breathing lead infused smoke. And generations before that were relaying bawdy jokes by tapping magnets that would send an electrical charge across town.

Anyway, to get back to the title of this post, I will be buying an iPad this weekend because I enjoy using thoughtful, well engineered products. I have tried many times to use non-Apple computers, to use the open and “free” choice and you know what? They are terrible. Really bad! Worse than bad, they’re almost creatively stifling.

Excerpted from ‘why i will be buying an ipad this weekend‘ on notes.torrez.org.

From being a founding member of the ground-breaking, politically minded hip-hop group Public Enemy to starring in a string of hit reality shows about his seemingly eternal search for love, Flav has continued to reinvent himself in the public eye.

Flav, born William Jonathan Drayton Jr., burst onto the public consciousness more than 20 years ago with the socially-conscious rap ensemble Public Enemy.

A classically-trained pianist, he attended Adelphi University in Long Island where he met fellow Public Enemy founding member and then graphic design student Carlton Ridenhour (Chuck D). The two began rapping together and by 1987 they — along with DJ Terminator X and Professor Griff — released the group’s debut “Yo! Bum Rush The Show.”

That was followed up the next year with “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back.” The release made a splash on the charts thanks to hits like “Don’t Believe the Hype” and “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos.”

Excerpted from ‘Flavor Flav’s Modesto block party‘ by Marijke Rowland. Published August 22, 2008 in the Modesto Bee.