47

This year, Telemundo 47 celebrates its 47th anniversary. This long time Spanish language station is as much a staple to local broadcast as any of the low numbered English stations. What I know it most for is its super clear reception. From the days of rabbit ear antennas to in-air HD, it's always been the clearest station. When  you first plug in your TV, it's one the only channels if not the only one that gets a perfect picture from anywhere in the city. Out of 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13, you might get partials on 2-3 of them. 13 usually comes out OK. But 47 is always crisp.

The Stepwell

On one of my crowded bus rides recently, the driver looked at the rearview mirror and was yelling at one passenger to get out of the stepwell. The bus was not going to move until that guy got out. Being a typical NYer, the passenger was totally tuning out the driver, with his headphones blasting. He finally realized when everyone else on the bus was signaling him. He had a confused look on his face.

The stepwell rule is a legitimate one even though it's precious space on a crowded train. Remember that scene in Speed when the smaller bomb goes off? The crazy nervous lady was trying to sneak onto the rescue platform when Dennis Hopper only negotiated for the wounded driver to be released. The bomb exploded and there was a hole on the stepwell. The stepwell is just cheap plastic/rubber. It's not part of the heavy metal chassis. So if a bus gets into an accident, the softer fleshy parts are the first to go.

Sword of Azrael: Subway Perv

Slave Pit: Darnell Hardware (nice perv name too) would get himself into crowded trains and rub up against women close by. He would go so far as to ejaculate on them as well... gross! Someone like this has serious problems and should be locked up for good. However, since he didn't use force, it was ruled a misdemeanor rather than a  felony. So he served 1 year and is now free on probation. It won't be long before he repeats.

Excommunication: Anyone involved in this ruling should be fired. Sometimes you have to use common sense when making decisions. This ruling is proof that criminals can get away with anything as long as they make the right arguments.

Yankees Weekend

The Yankees appear to be back on track after losing their once 10-game lead over the Orioles. Recently, they won their series against the Sox, the Rays and the Jays (sweep). Facing one of the hottest teams in the A's, they took 2 out of 3 over the weekend. More important though is that they showed fight in that series. The Yankees have had their troubles this year coming back from deficits after the 8th inning. They won 2 extra inning games against the A's. Game 1 was a 2-1 win in the 10th off a Martin walkoff HR. Game 2 was an odd game where they kept getting and losing the lead. It was tied all the way from the 7th to 13th innings. The A's knocked 4 runs off Garcia. Then the Yankees knocked in 4 of their own. They eventually won it in the 14th... a walkoff error.

The bats are looking really good right now. Jeter has been consistent all year, so no surprise with him. Ichiro has been good since they got him, but this past week has been amazing. What is he batting... like .800? Martin got some confidence with the walkoff. Granderson got his power back. A-Rod is hitting. Cano still needs to get back on track.

Return of D-Rose (Part 2)

Sword of Azrael: Weight Limit

Ronald Post, who is on death row, scheduled to be executed in January for a murder he committed 30 ears ago is arguing that he's too heavy to be killed. He weighs 480 lbs. His argument is that none of the execution devices would work quickly on him. He would suffer too much and it would be inhumane. Did everyone suddenly forget that this guy is guilty of murder!? I have a solution for this... a gunshot to the head! He's worried about the pain and psychological effects. This is an execution though. He's supposed to die. The possible torture would just be a bonus to the family he hurt. This is where the US system is majorly flawed.

Priority List

There are various systems in a typical office that have a priority field. We've got emails that can be marked with a priority. There are bug trackers, to-do lists and project management systems. I never follow the priority field though because too many people misuse the highest level. Everyone thinks that their own thing is the most important task in the world. My priority list always starts with the items  that are worded more nicely. I always want to reward the nice people first. For the angry people... well, they can be angry for another day or two!

Soda Reduction

If you look at all of the recent headlines and graphics about the "Soda Ban," you'd think they were doing away with soda altogether in the city. It would be completely illegal like weed and you'd have to buy it from the black market. Bars would secretly serve it and you'd have to buy it from other states. In reality, it's not that bad at all. In fact, most people won't notice it. The deal is that places that "serve" food won't be able to sell drinks over 16oz. That's the equivalent of a typical plastic bottle size. You can still buy your 2 liter in the supermarket. Normal restaurants don't go above 16oz anyway. This only affects fast food joints and movie theaters, whose drink sizes I feel are too large anyway. So this is a good thing. 

The  question is... will the fast food places and theaters charge the super-sized prices still? It's definitely an opportunity for them to make more of a profit while handing out less product.

iPhone 5

These Apple media events really take away from the product. Hype builds up over the weeks and we get leaked rumors (probably planted). So expectations are always high... so high that the actually release will almost always be disappointing. I felt like the new iPhone wasn't much of a change from the current one. Yes... it's slightly taller and lighter and of course the hardware is upgraded. But it just doesn't feel like a new revolutionary product. It's probably not suppose to, but there was a large  media event. I wonder if I'd think more highly of it if the event never occurred.

On paper, the iPhone 5 still falls slightly short of the Samsung Galaxy S3. The processor is 1.2 vs 1.5. It has half the RAM. Storage is the same, but the S3 has an expandable slot. Cameras are the same, but only hands-on will tell which is better. S3 has the edge in battery life and resolution. I also think the S3 looks more Applelike than the Apple!

Kiddie Tablets

The iPad was probably the worst nightmare for manufacturers of several childrens' toys... particularly the electronics. Companies like Leapfrog made their money on kids toys that looked like computers, laptops and tablets... fake electronics. Many parents however give their kids access to iPads loaded with games and educational programs on them. The iPad covers all ages. Why would some kid play with a Leapfrog afer using an iPad? You might argue price, but then there are the new wave of budget tablets with power, started by the Kindle Fire last year. Toys R Us is about to release their own kiddie tablet for $150. So why would anyone buy a device like that when the Fire and Google Nexus are in the same price range? It's almost destined to fail.

Sword of Azrael: Cuevas' Killer

The Death by Fiery Sword penalty goes to the officer who killed Reynaldo Cuevas during a convenience store robbery. Cuevas, who  was an employee of the store being robbed, found and opportunity to escape from his captors.  As he fled, he was shot and killed by the cops though. This is where the act first policy of the NYPD fails. How could they possible know if Cuevas was a robber or victim without any actions. He wasn't making an aggressive move.

Cuevas was 20 years old and well known for helping kids around his neighborhood. He worked in the US to support his family in the Dominican Rep.

9/11

It's hard to believe that it's yet another anniversary of 9/11. On my path to and from work, there was no indication. It was business as usual for most New Yorkers. Everyone was in a rush. Trains and buses were on schedule. People were getting their coffee on the go. AM and Metro workers were handing out their papers. In fact that's how I was reminded of the date. The AM guy was advertising the 9/11 cover.  

 Security sucked as always too. There were no extra cops and the checkpoints had their usual holes (I'll never mention what these are since it would give too much intel away). It would be obvious for terrorists to attack on an anniversary. It's too predictable for them, but it doesn't mean we should lax up the security because you never know.

Finally Fall?

It's not officially Autumn yet, but the Hallmark Autumn started on Labor Day and nature seemed to follow. The temperatures only dropped  a little bit, but there's a certain character to the air after Labor Day and when school starts up again. On the commute so far, almost everyone switched to long pants. There are still a lot of t-shirts and short sleeves though. The forecast this week has highs in the 70's and lows in the 50's, so it's hard to predict what to wear. A light jacket is always good because it's removable. 2 commuters got extreme. 1 guy wore a dress shirt (which means he also had an undershirt) with a sweater on top. Another guy had a heavy hoodie. To me, that's skipping Fall and going straight to Winter!

Women's Final

The US Open almost felt like Wimbledon with its rain delays. Instead of a Super Saturday, the final was played on Sunday night prime time. It was as good as a 3-set game could be, featuring the 2 best players in Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka. Both players had great tournament runs and showed a lot of power. Azarenka was the first to strike with a dominant 6-2 set. Serena countered with a 6-2 herself. Then it was Azranka again off to a 5-3 lead in the 3rd. The championship was in reach. Then Serena came all the way back for the win. It was definitely one of the better women's finals I've seen. It had the back and forth, but would've been nice if it had some longer rallies.

 The Men's Final was pushed to tomorrow... normally would've been early this morning.

US Open Update

Andy Roddick 
I think the biggest shocker so far has nothing to do with wins and upsets. It's the announcement of Andy Roddick's retirement. He's only 30 years old and still playing well. He's always bounced back from injuries and if not for 2 very special players in Federer and Nadal, Roddick would certainly have more than one Grand Slam title (2003 US Open). I honestly think that this won't be the last of him. He's going to try it for a while and then get bored. Tennis players have been known for making comebacks and maybe he just needs an extended break.

Williams Doubles 
Venus and Serena have dominated the doubles tournament, winning 13 in all... the most in Open Era history. They're both very strong individual players and when you put them on the same side, they're nearly invincible. But they lost this year to the Russian team of Kirilenko and Petrova.