Hundreds of Holocaust survivors and descendants of survivors bought an ad in Saturday’s New York Times condemning what they referred to as “the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza and the ongoing occupation and colonization of historic Palestine.”

“We are alarmed by the extreme, racist dehumanization of Palestinians in Israeli society, which has reached a fever-pitch,” said the statement, which ran as a half-page ad and was sponsored by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, founded in 2008.

The statement was signed by more than 300 people and issued in response to a recent ad by Elie Wiesel published in the Times, The Washington Post and The New York Observer, among other prominent news outlets, comparing the actions of Hamas, the militant Palestinian organization, to the Nazis. The Wiesel ad stimulated much controversy and attention—it was rejected by The London Times, as exclusively reported by the Observer, and was then accepted by The Guardian, to the horror of many of that paper’s readers.

“Furthermore,” the letter continued, “we are disgusted and outraged by Elie Wiesel’s abuse of our history in these pages to justify the unjustifiable: Israel’s wholesale effort to destroy Gaza and the murder of more than 2,000 Palestinians, including many hundreds of children.”

The strong words directed at Mr. Wiesel, perhaps the world’s best-known survivor of the Holocaust and thought of by many as the very conscience of genocide, was surprising to those supporting the Wiesel ad.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, whose organization, This World: The Values Network, sponsored Mr. Wiesel’s ad, was shocked by the attack on Mr. Wiesel.

“Elie Wiesel is not only the most famous Holocaust survivor in the world and a man who has taught billions of people about the Holocaust, he’s also one of the most respected people alive,” he said. “The attack on him for supporting the basic right of Jewish self defense and the prevention of a second Holocaust at the hands of a self-declared genocidal terror organization whose charter calls for the annihilation all Jews is shocking in the extreme.”

But Raphael Cohen, a signatory of the letter and a member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, said in an interview with the Observer that Mr. Wiesel’s high profile was a motivating factor behind the publication of the letter.

“We wanted to make it clear that he does not speak for all survivors of the Nazi genocide and that he doesn’t speak for all Jews,” Mr. Cohen said, referring to Mr. Wiesel. “And we wanted to make clear that there is a huge number of survivors who are outraged by what Israel is doing in the Gaza Strip.”

The names of all the signatories appear in the advertisement and also on the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network website. The Observer confirmed several of their identities, including H. Richard Leuchtag, who is the author of several books and other works in the field of molecular neurobiology. Mr. Leuchtag declined to discuss his reasons for signing the ad but described having been “born in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland). In November 1938, my father was picked up on the street and transported to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Due to my mother’s persistent efforts and the fact that we had visas to Panama, my father was released after two weeks. We spent two years in Panama and entered the US in 1940.”

Do you read Bustle, the website best known in "the culture" as the place whose founder, Bryan Goldberg, uses his female employees' legs as typing desks? No, me neither. Nonetheless, according to recent reporting by Amanda Hess at Slate, the thing is going gangbusters. It has 15 million unique visitors! It has over $11 million in venture capital!

Read more...

Are cities worldwide really becoming less livable?

An annual report released this week that got lots of media attention says yes, but the report also shows how hard it is to measure such a subjective quality.

Each year, the Economist Intelligence Unit — a corporate cousin of The Economist magazine that provides forecasting and advisory services — ranks cities by how livable they are for people who might move there for jobs. And since 2009, cities have become less livable — by seven-tenths of a point, on average, on the EIU’s 0-to-100-point scale.

Cities are rated in five categories, and one is the chief culprit for the decline: stability. The 140 included cities, on average, dropped by 1.4 points on the stability scale. Scores in the other four categories dropped, but by much less. Stability accounted for about half the decline in global urban livability, by The Economist’s reckoning. And that’s just the direct cost of instability. Jon Copestake, who edits the EIU’s livability index, said instability also indirectly contributed to declines in the categories of health care, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.

“Stability has been the main driver,” Copestake said in a telephone interview Wednesday. Instability, he added, “means infrastructure suffers, education suffers.”

The EIU’s conclusion that livability is declining may seem suspect — measuring livability and stability is a fundamentally inexact, subjective enterprise. The EIU leans heavily on correspondents, one per city, to evaluate their hometowns. More than 80 percent of the component scores that go into each rating are based on the judgment of correspondents, which are then honed by staff with knowledge of the region. That is the process for all five of the components of stability: the prevalence of petty and violent crime; and the threat of terror, military conflict, and civil unrest or conflict.

The ratings could instead use quantitative data sources for many cities. But for just about every category, data wouldn’t be available for at least one city, Copestake said.

The EIU therefore places great trust in the hands of the correspondents, freelancers who in some cases haven’t lived long in the city. Copestake said new residents’ experiences living elsewhere provides them with perspective, as does their backgrounds. “Once upon a time — and probably a reflection of the times — they once were expat housewives,” Copestake said. “But obviously, times change, thankfully, and now they have a variety of backgrounds: They work at local consultancies, are former editors or journalists, or former students. The main thing is, they’re capable of gathering the data and justifying it to you. They’re providing us with the insights we need.”

And the EIU doesn’t just take them at face value, Copestake said. It compares the correspondents’ ratings with whatever third-party sources it can find. “We’re investigating sources all the time, to back up the scores we provide,” he said. Without checks, the EIU could risk declaring a decline in stability because it had a group of particularly tough graders one year.

Copestake thinks stability is far less subjective than some other categories — for example, the discomfort the climate poses to travelers. “Stability is the easiest to score in terms of intuitive scoring,” Copestake said. “It’s hard to argue, in all or most cases, with low stability scores.”

Three other stability ratings don’t argue with The Economist’s conclusions. The World Bank-funded Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) evaluate countries on six factors. One is political stability and absence of violence. The latest available report is from 2012. The EIU and WGI project agree on the places that have seen the most destabilization in recent years. Stability scores declined the most in Damascus, Syria, and Tripoli, Libya, according to the EIU. And Libya and Syria were the two countries with the biggest declines in stability, according to the WGI.

Picking up where the WGI left off, Maplecroft, a risk-analysis company, found that Syria had the biggest increase in risk between 2012 and the third quarter of this year. Libya ranked fourth. Political risk overall increased globally, according to Charlotte Ingham, principal political risk analyst at Maplecroft, with an increase of 4 percentage points, to 36.5 percent, in the share of countries that fell into the highest risk category. “The global political risk trend is increasing as the rate of improvements, where they are occurring, is insufficient to outweigh the rapid rate of deterioration witnessed in a host of other countries,” Ingham said.

The WGI stability indicator can’t be used to identify global stability trends, because the global average is set to zero each year, said co-creator Aart Kraay in an email. However, the Global Peace Index can. And the median rating in the nearly 150 countries rated has increased by 5 percent between 2009 and 2014, where a higher score means less peace. On a per-person basis, the producers of the index at the Institute for Economics and Peace say peace has declined by 12 percent since 2008.

Three caveats to keep in mind amid this agreement about declining stability:

• With a dearth of hard stability numbers, there’s something a bit circular about the agreement. The Global Peace Index draws on the EIU and the WGI.
• The stability declines are relative to 2008 or 2009 or 2012. It’s possible the world is more stable today than in, say, 2002. The Global Peace Index began in 2008. Maplecroft’s index in its current form dates back to 2011. And the EIU didn’t compare this year’s index with any prior years besides 2009, so Copestake couldn’t say whether that was a high-water mark for stability.
• The decline was subtle. Over the past five years, the vast majority of cities — including the 20 most stable ones today — didn’t experience any change in stability, according to the EIU. And nine cities, led by Bogota, Colombia, became more stable.

Thanks to Lisa McKeon’s new book Brooklyn Baby, Smorgasburg and other BK staples will live forever in hardcover and paperback form. From the Amazon listing:

Here come the Brooklyn babies, ready to give you a tour of their ’hood in this appealing board book. Spirited and charming images pair with quirky text to introduce young readers to a group of smart, active, stylish, and just plain silly tots enjoying life in Brooklyn. From Prospect Park to the Botanical Garden to the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, this educational and entertaining read is an essential introduction to the fun, arts, and diversity in store for the babies of Brooklyn.

See more at DNA info.

- @joshmorrissey

Some say Macedonia's 'branding' blitz, which has sown the country with statues and colonnades, alienates its Albanian population by glossing over their role in its history.

The Russian tourist who decided to climb the Brooklyn Bridge, all the way up to the tower on the Brooklyn side, was in court Sunday to face charges. A prosecutor said, "The defendant stated in sum and substance that he did it for fun." [ more › ]

You're driving down the road on a warm summer afternoon. You pass your local bank and the display says it's 97°F. "Good grief," you think, "I didn't realize it was that hot." Well, it's probably not that hot. The thermometers they use at businesses with electronic displays are useless junk.

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I hate it when transplants from California piously proclaim that there's no such thing as a good taco in Gotham. What it usually means is that they haven't taken the trouble to investigate the wildly expanding Mexican food scene here, perhaps just by stepping on a train to Corona, Sunset Park, Stapleton, or East Harlem, or visiting one of the taco trucks that seem to park on every corner once night falls. Indeed, we even have establishments that serve a decent semblance of San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco tacos.

Ever since southern Mexican immigrants started pouring into town almost 30 years ago, we've seen a multiplication of taco styles, a gradual broadening of our taco vistas — partly sparked by the immigrants, partly due to a ramping up of Mexican food popularity nationwide. One bellwether was when salsa surpassed ketchup as our national condiment a few years back, and another arrived with the popular ascendance of Taco Bell, Chipotle, and similar chains, making burritos and other food invented decades ago in Texas and California by Mexican immigrants available in every corner of the country.

But the taco remains the sine quo non of South of the Border eats, and Gosh! does New York have plenty. Most parts of town, you can't walk a block in any direction without encountering tacos sold by a cart, market stall, grocery, taqueria, snack shop, or restaurant where name chefs study how to mutate this hand-held treat in creative ways. Here is a stab at classifying all the types currently available in New York, with an example of each.

1. Pueblan Double-Tortilla Taco — This is our taco default: two silky white-corn tortillas heated on a plancha and folded over meat or poultry fillings, simply garnished with chopped onions and cilantro. Some places have adopted the more Mexican-American habit of substituting lettuce and tomatoes. Available from carts and taquerias in dozens of neighborhoods; shown here are a pair from the El Idolo truck that parks every evening on the border of Chelsea and Greenwich Village. Corner 8th Ave and West 14th St.

2. Pueblan Single-Tortilla Taco — Rolled into a cylinder or cone and wrapped in tissue paper — and sometimes sporting a bonus wad of guacamole — tacos sometimes go low-carb with a single white-corn tortilla, as in this duo from El Jarochito: carne enchilada on the left, carnitas on the right. With traditional accompaniments. 195 Neptune Ave, Brooklyn, 718-769-4447.

3. Hard Shell Tacos — Even though the shells are available in every supermarket, few restaurants above the chain level make this type of taco in New York, seemingly unknown to southern Mexican immigrants and maybe a Mexican-American invention. Old-timer El Cantinero still offers them exclusively, loaded with seasoned ground beef, the way they do it in Texas. 86 University Pl, 212-255-9378.

4. Tacos Arabes — Conventionally filled with pork al pastor cut from one of those gyro contraptions, tacos arabes – introduced by Iraqi immigrants to the city of Puebla 100 years ago — are wrapped in a flour tortilla descended from the pita. Shown here is the version found at Bella Puebla. In the absence of yogurt, crema is used as a dressing, and there may be a chile or two knocking around in there, too. 94-11 Roosevelt Ave, Jackson Heights, Queens, 718-639-7300.

5. Tacos Placeros — These "market tacos" possibly originated in the state of Morelos, and came to the city via a Jackson Heights cart a few years ago. They're often cheaply stuffed, sans meat, with things like yellow rice, boiled eggs, freshly fried chiles relleno, and even french fries. Here's the one from Tacos Morelos, a Mexican gastropub descended from the cart that first introduced them on Roosevelt Ave. 94-13 37th Ave, Jackson Heights, Queens, 347-832-0193.

6. Tacos Dorados — Originating in southern Mexico, this taco involves folding or rolling a white-corn tortilla around a standard filling, then deep-frying it. A verdant collection of vegetable material is then tossed on top and dressed with squirted crema, as seen in this La Cabana version. 2277 1st Ave, 212-860-5555.

7. Flour Tortilla Tacos — In Texas, tacos traditionally come on full-size flour tortillas, but here we have few examples of that style. The most famous is found at Fresco Tortilla Grill and its many descendants, founded 15 years ago by a Chinese family from Mexico City — who reportedly brought a tortilla-making machine with them. 36 Lexington Ave, 212-475-7380.

8. Mini Tacos — Like Los Angeles, New York prizes its diminutive tacos, but ours are generally made from tortillas fabricated from fine white masa, rather than the more rustic coarse yellow masa favored on the West Coast. At Casa Enrique, a pair of small white-corn tortillas are stuffed with homemade chorizo by chef Cosme Aguilar, who hails from the state of Chiapas. 5-48 49th Ave, Long Island City, Queens, 347-448-6040.

9. Los Angeles Mini Tacos — One of the most typical L.A. tacos is made on a single or double yellow mini corn tortilla. In the example shown here, juicy chunks of pork al pastor are topped with pineapple. This trio of tacos comes from Florencia 13, a haunt aimed at homesick Angelinos, named after an East L.A. street gang. 185 Sullivan St, 212-677-6830.

10. Los Angeles Mini Tacos With Homemade Tortillas — Using a mini yellow corn tortilla made seconds before on a small gleaming machine that commands your attention at this small taqueria is the genius of Otto's Tacos. Fillings include a shrimp taco in the style of Baja and the mushroom taco shown here. 141 2nd Ave, 646-678-4018.

11. Chef's Mini Tacos (Stupak) — When New York chefs started exploring tacos a few years back, they naturally gravitated toward the smallest format due to the fact that you could feature a lower proportion of carbs, and sell them for proportionally more money. Using small homemade flour tortillas, Alex Stupak of Empellon Taqueria fills his with a variety of invented fillings, including the one shown here, pastrami with pickled mustard seeds, for a very New York-y adaptation of the taco. 230 W 4th St, 212-367-0999.

12. Chef's Mini Tacos (Bowien) — San Francisco transplant Danny Bowien paid extra attention to the mini corn tortillas made from Anson Mills kernels that underlie his invented tacos at Mission Cantina. He also experimented with vegetarian taco fillings including the sweet potato shown here. 172 Orchard St, 212-254-2233

13. San Diego Rolled Tacos — Here they might be called flautas, but in San Diego, California they're known as rolled tacos, or sometimes taquitos, and constitute one of the principal gastro-attractions. Taquitoria carries the banner aloft, offering only rolled tacos in that style, filled with sustainably sourced beef, chicken, pork, or black beans, and topped with sour cream, Whiz-like cheese, and jalapenos; or queso seco, lettuce, and guac. 168 Ludlow St, 212-780-0121.

14. San Diego Mini Tacos — Stuffed with spice-rubbed pork adobada, Los Tacos No.1's tacos come on small corn tortillas (left) or small flour tortillas (right), garnished with cilantro, raw onion, a dairy-guac mixture, and chile sauce, with a bonus stick of pineapple on top. Chelsea Market, 75 9th Ave, 212-256-0343

15. Taco Loco — The taco loco was invented at the local mini-chain San Loco, and the concept was eventually knocked off by Taco Bell. Here's how it goes down: a hard-shell taco with a standard Tex-Mex ground beef filling is rubbed on the outside with refried beans, which act as an adhesive to glue a wobbly flour tortilla onto the outside. Genius, isn't it? 111 Stanton St, 212-253-7580

16. Breakfast Tacos — This specialty of Austin, Texas has sporadically appeared in various forms around town. Latest is at Choza in the Gotham West Market. Even though they're served on small corn tortillas rather than the prototypical large flour ones, they qualify. 600 11th Ave, 212-582-7940.

17. Doritos Tacos – Like it or not, the nationwide chain Taco Bell is in the vanguard of taco invention, as seen in their Dorito taco, which has a hard shell manufactured of the same adamantine material as Nacho Cheese Doritos, flavored with a volatile powder that leaves a bright red coloration on the tips of your fingers. Filled with processed cheese, seasoned ground beef, and shredded iceberg, the taste is not half bad. Any Taco Bell Outlet.

18. Fish Tacos — Originating in Mexico's Baja peninsula and sold from beach cabanas, these tacos featuring battered and fried fish filets caused a sensation in New York a few years back. The one served at Dorado is typical of the genre, dressed with shredded cabbage and crema, or even mayo. 28 E 12th St, 212-627-0900.

19. San Antonio Puffy Tacos – The puffy taco, a specialty of San Antonio, Texas, was once offered at Goat Town on Monday nights, via chef Julie Farias, an Alamo City native. Now both the special Texas Mexican evening and the restaurant are defunct. Somebody, for Pete's sake bring back the puffy taco!

20. Gringas — A gringa, female for "gringo," consists of a pair of flour tortillas placed on either side of a common taco filling – cabeza wouldn't go there, but pollo, carnitas, and, especially, al pastor (shown at Sembrado) are fair game. Note that a gringa is not much different than a small-size American bar-style quesadilla. 432 E 13th St, 212-729-4206.

21. Flour Tortilla BBQ Tacos — This Mex-Tex hybrid features barbecue — in this case, smoked brisket — on flour tortillas, and has become a staple of Lone Star barbecues such as Chisolm Trail in Lockhart. Mexicue Kitchen & Bar does a decent version, with smoky shredded brisket. 1440 Broadway, 212-302-0385.

22. Corn Tortilla BBQ Tacos — At Tres Carnes, the tortillas are the white-corn variety made at numerous tortilla factories in Brooklyn, and the cubed brisket has been smoked 16 hours. 688 6th Ave, 212-989-8737.

23. San Francisco Tacos — At Dos Toros, the tacos come with a piece of white American cheese annealed to the inside of the corn tortilla. Aside from meat (in this case carne asada) and salsa, the only other stuffing is the optional guacamole. 137 4th Ave, 212-677-7300.

24. Korean Tacos – Korean tacos were a fusion invention that appeared about five years ago, mainly sold from trucks like Korilla, Yogi, and Mogo. Some of the earliest were offered at the Pako Taco stall in the Hester Street Market, filled with beef bulgogi, kimchi, and spicy mayo. The idea may have originated in L.A.

And here's a map:

Seymour Topping, who worked at the New York Times for 33 years, and wife Audrey – also a journalist – say they may have to move out of Scarsdale because their property taxes nearly doubled.

The retired Timesman says on video:

Audrey and I are journalists, and we covered the wars in Asian – before we came home here, to live here in Scarsdale for about 25 years – and we’ve had a lot of shocks. But this was another kind of a shock when we got our new assessment, and the protected increase in our taxes.

Our property taxes doubled from $45,000, projected, to $85,000, and it was quite a shock. …We only paid $80,000 for this old house and a couple of acres back in 1967. …Audrey and I have to think now, can we continue to afford to live here? We live on a pension, and we’re not rich people.

Their 13-room home is now assessed at $4.2 million.

Audrey says: “Tops is 92 and I’m 87 – 86 – so it’s not easy for us to move out, but the taxes may make us – force us to move from Scarsdale.”

* Scarsdale reevaluation hits high-end homes hardest (lohud.com)

Update: Not a lot of sympathy for the Toppings on my Facebook wall (facebook.com)

Doctors believe that Eric Silverman, the Brooklyn resident who was quarantined for three days at Mount Sinai after returning home from West Africa with Ebola-like symptoms, most likely doesn't have Ebola. "They think it's still just malaria," Silverman told CBS News. Cool, no biggie.

Read more posts by Jessica Roy

Curving wide around a forested mountain peak, the Langkawi Sky Bridge in Malaysia is an impressive feat of engineering, or so it would seem since the bridge has been closed for years with not much chance of reopening. 

Constructed in 2005, the steel skybridge is a pedestrian thoroughfare that allowed visitors to take a scenic stroll high above the lush forests of the Gunung Mat Chinchang mountain. After a tram ride to the foot of the bridge, the walkway winds almost leisurely around the very tips of a trio of mountains. The path is suspended over 2,000 feet above sea level by a single massive pylon that trails thick steel cables down to the bridge. The pieces of the over 400-foot bridge were lifted onto the mountain via helicopter and constructed at elevation. It looks both futuristic and almost frighteningly precarious. And as it turns out, these fears might be justified.

After being open for a scant few years, it closed in 2012 for renovations and repairs. As of 2014, it still has not reopened, and while it is projected to become available again in early 2015, many are not holding their breath.

Next week's cover of The New Yorker touches upon the biggest domestic issue in the country—the situation in Ferguson, Missouri after the death of teenager Michael Brown. The artist Eric Drooker explained his work for the magazine's blog:

“The police shooting of Michael Brown resonates on a personal level with me,” Eric Drooker says about next week’s cover. “An artist friend of mine was killed by a cop in lower Manhattan, back in 1991. He happened to be black, and the police officer was never indicted.” [ more › ]

You only have till August 22nd to get your BAHFest submission in!

From NetEase:

Goodbye, Internet Bar

2002′s large fire at the “Lan Ji Su” internet bar resulted in a strict crackdown of internet bars for as long as ten years. However, what really caused people to say goodbye to internet bars was not government policy but the internet’s transformation towards mobile devices.

1995, China’s first internet bar “3C+T” was established in Shanghai, and operated in the mode of an internet cafe. In the ten years that followed, internet bars “sprouted up like spring bamboo after the rain”, appearing on streets and in the alleys throughout China. Photo is of 1998, when United States president Bill Clinton was visiting Shanghai, and visited an internet bar on Shaanxi West Road in Shanghai.

At the end of the ’90s, the internet quietly entered people’s field of vision. Because computers at the time were relatively expensive, most households did not purchase computers, with internet bars thus becoming the main place people went online. Photo is of 2002, an internet bar in Beijing. Photo: Cai Daizheng

The prevalence of online gaming attracted China’s earliest batch of faithful netizens, and the internet bar industry thus entered its golden age, becoming a new mecca of leisure for people. Photo is of 2002, of a second-hand store in Beijing filled with second-hand computers collected from internet bars. REUTERS

At the time, there was a resounding saying: “If you want to get rich, open an internet bar”. Other than computer usage and overnight use fees, internet bars also relied on selling online gaming points/currency cards and QQ currency to make money. The daily income for larger internet bars could reach thousands of yuan. Photo is of 2005, of a packed internet bar in Chongqing, with later customers having to wait in line. Photo: Jiang Shangou/Dongfang IC

Internet bars became a bridge for young people to interact with the world, as well what many post-’80s generation regard as an essential memory of their youth. Photo is of 2003, inside an internet bar in Sichuan, where several students try to avoid a reporter’s camera. Photo: Ling Chen/CFP

Owing to a lack of oversight/supervision, a lot of violence and sexual activity occurred in internet bars, which became known as gathering places for society’s idlers and such people. News of youth becoming addicted to the internet also began appearing in newspapers. Photo is of 2005, when angry parents of a student in Fuzhou whose grades have dropped because of becoming engrossed with the internet reported a “black [illegal, immoral] internet bar” to the government Administration for Industry and Commerce. Han Xiao/CFP

Photo is of 2000, Shandong, as a monk browses information about Buddhism at an internet bar. With regards to the various problems concerning the internet at the time, he made a very zen remark: “If a monk is guilty, the guilt should not apply to all monks; if a monk is to be punished, the temple should not be punished.” Photo: Yue Qiang/CFP

A shift in the internet bar industry occurred on 2002 June 16. Early that morning, Beijing’s “Lan Ji Su” internet bar was set on fire by four middle school students. When the fire occurred, the door had been locked by the owner to prevent customers from running away [without paying], so the customers were trapped within, resulting in 25 deaths, half of which were students. Photo is of 2005, of the “Haidian Public Safety Museum” exhibiting a reconstructed scene of the Lan Ji Su internet bar fire. Photo: Xiao Yi/CFP

The “Lan Ji Su” incident shocked the entire country, with various universities, middle schools, and primary schools launching huge “stay away from internet bars” educational campaigns. 2002 November 19, the Nanpu No.2 Primary School in Wenzhou city held a “just say ‘no’ to internet bars” activity, and established an “oriole” supervision team comprised of elementary school students. Photo: Lu Chunyu/CFP.

Starting from 2002 November 15, the “Regulations on the Administration of Business Sites of Internet Access Services” went into effect, with prohibiting minors from entering internet bars being a primary focus. Photo is of 2009 September 16, where Anhui Huaibei Taoyuan Coal Mine Primary School students used their bodies to form the characters for “Stay Away from Internet Bars”. Photo: Ma Zhen/Dongfang IC

The “Regulations” stipulated that internet bars not admit minors, conspicuously display a sign prohibiting minors from entering at the entrance, and to check and register the identity of internet users. Photo is of 2006, as law enforcement conduct a surprise check of internet bars in urban Fuzhou. Photo: Yang Enuo, Lu Luyang/CFP

Photo is of 2004, where an internet bar in Zhengzhou is being investigated. Upon seeing the reporter, many schoolchildren taking advantage of their time off to go online quickly hid [from the camera]. Photo: Ma Jian/CFP

Regulations also stipulate that “internet bars” may no longer be present within 200m of primary and middle schools, but this hasn’t stopped primary and middle school students from going to internet bars. Photo is of 2006, outside a college in Hefei city, where an internet bar shuttle greets students at the school’s gate. Photo: Huang He/CFP

The government launched a clean up/rectification of internet bars throughout the country, including requiring a real name registration system, supervision of minors going online, multiple supervision of internet bars, suspending the issuance of licenses, etc. Photo is of 2003, in Sichuan Suining, where Industry and Commerce Bureau enforcers received reports from the public, and raided three unlicensed internet bars. Photo: Xie Xin/CFP

From 2003 onwards, the country implemented the “no new independent internet bars” policy. Independent internet bars are internet bars that are individually operated in contrast to internet bar chains. Photo is of 2005, Beijing Fengtai, as law enforcement personnel uncovered a black [illegal] internet bar in a room/building labeled “urinals”. Photo: Pu Feng/CFP

10 years of government regulation and supervision hasn’t curbed the development of internet bars. Photo is of 2005, Fuzhou, where an enforcement officer is investigating an illegally-operated internet bar. Photo: Han Xiao/CFP

What has actually caused the decline of internet bars is the popularization of [owning] personal computers as well as the assault of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. Photo is of 2006, inside an internet bar in Tibet Lhasa.

According to statistics, there were a total of 136k internet bars throughout China in 2012, 10k less than in 2011, the first drop in the total number of internet bars since 2004. Photo is of 2006, where a pair of lovers use the internet in a couple’s booth.

Among the 670 registered internet bars in Shanxi Taiyuan, there are over 80 declaring that they are closing down, which is a closure rate exceeding 10%. 2009 December 24, young people using the internet at an internet bar in Shanxi Taiyuan. Photo: Shan Qing/CFP

2013, after ten years of being frozen, the Ministry of Culture announced that it is lifting the prohibition against independent internet bars. However, the change in policy will still find it difficult to reverse the internet bar industry’s decline. Photo is of 2014 August 5, in Sichuan Luzhou, as members of the local community elderly volunteer internet bar oversight group make their rounds visiting internet bars. Photo: CFP

With the rise of mobile internet, internet bars that were once popular and could be found everywhere have now become a sunset industry. Photo is of 2008, of signs pointing to an internet bar in Shanghai. Photo: Xu Hede/Dongfang IC

Comments from NetEase:

网易浙江省温州市手机网友 ip：218.73.*.*

Those who have stayed overnight, been too tired, watched a movie in an internet bar, ding me.

网易广东省深圳市手机网友 ip：112.97.*.*

No matter what, internet bars carried the youths of many people.
CS, Chuanqi, Red Alert. (in no particular order.)

网易美国手机网友 ip：75.135.*.*

The decline of internet bars is only because everyone has a computer now, so there’s really no reason to make such a big fuss about it.

jlmwjgdjaj [网易江西省新余市手机网友]：

Turns out when I used the computer every day, my eyesight didn’t become bad, but ever since I could go on the internet with my mobile phone, my eyes have gotten worse and worse.

网易广东省深圳市手机网友 ip：112.97.*.*

Now when I think about how I used to play CS all night in internet bars back then, it is still a cherished memory.

网易山西省太原市手机网友(171.117.*.*)：

2000 Red Alert, 2001 CS, 2002 Chuanqi, 2003 Diablo, 2004 Warcraft 2, 2005 Menghuan, 2006 Chenhai3c [Warcraft RPG map], 2007 WC3, 2008 DOTA… 2014 DOTA2… Anyone more or less the same as me?

网易浙江省温州市手机网友(60.181.*.*)： (responding to above)

Chuanqi; Sifu; Qiannian; Yitian 2; Moxiang; Red Alert; Starcraft; CS; Chuanshi; Jianxia 1, 2, and 3; Rexue Jianghu; Zhuxian; Kating Che; Crazy Arcade; DNF; Yongbing Tianxia; Dantou Qibing; Quanqiu Shiming; Tianxia 3; Datang Haoxia, Datang Wushuang 2, League of Heroes, Jiu Yin Zhenjing…

丨窗口灬 [网易广东省手机网友]： (responding to above)

Damn, are you two professional gamers?

琴音未了 [网易黑龙江省哈尔滨市手机网友]：

I loved online gaming with friends in the internet bar, so awesome~ fuck…

网易天津市手机网友 [小神J0YZ] 的原贴：

Internet bars maybe doomed? Don’t be ridiculous, you think you can put together a few pictures and say they’re doomed? Garbage editor. Right now internet bars are all going high-end, with really good machines, trending towards professional gaming. Going online has even gotten more expensive, three if not four yuan, and some are even seven yuan an hour. The environment/premises are comfortable, and there’s no lack of people.

网易广东省深圳市手机网友 ip：112.97.*.* (responding to above)

Exactly!

网易广东省手机网友(157.122.*.*)：

From 1997 to 2000, Quake, Red Alert, and Age of Empires. 2000 to 2006 was the craziest times of CS and everyone playing together in the internet bar, with CS internet bar competitions everywhere. Warcraft was high-end as before, because after all few people knew how to really play, but the WCG competitions hooked people. Online games [probably referring to MMORPGs] I very rarely played, because I felt they were a waste of money and time, but back then Chuanqi, Tiantang, RO were also especially popular. After 2005, it was World of Warcraft and DOTA that were in vogue, but unfortunately I had already begun entering society [begun working], so I didn’t play much. After that, stuff like CF I felt had already become retarded, and LOL [League of Legends] was a copy of Dota, all stuff by Ma Huateng [Chairman of Tencent] that I wasn’t fond of. I’m a post-’80s generation. Those who have similar recollections, give this a ding!

Oh yeah, at the beginning of 2000, there was also a type of quiet person, those that were in chat rooms (which has probably already vanished by now). Back then, internet chat rooms were all crazy, haha.

雷帝嘎嘎 [网易广西贵港市手机网友]： (responding to above)

Chat rooms quiet? I remember around 2002, back then, voice chatting was popular, and there was never ending noise assaulting my ears.

dianaross [网易天津市网友]：

The generation of people with their heads down [looking at their phones] were thus born.

老痰酸菜面 [网易江苏省南通市手机网友]：

Without internet bars, [China] would be be the same as North Korea.

Texas Governor Rick Perry is worried about ISIS. Specifically, he’s worried about ISIS infiltrating the United States through our porous border with Mexico.

“I think it's a very real possibility that they may have already” come through Mexico, he said at the Heritage Foundation on Thursday. “The cartels, as vicious and brutal as they are, might be the least of our worries. What other bad actors are coming here, or for that matter, have arrived already? Where did they come from? What did they bring with them?”

But you're not really a terrorist organziation in the eyes of the United States until someone worries about you coming up from the south. It’s not just ISIS. It's Hezbollah. (Former Arizona State Senator Sylvia Allen: "We are being invaded by criminals who have formed alliances with mid-eastern terrorists who use violence in the most evil of ways to intimidate, control and protect their drug-human smuggling multi-billion dollar business.") It’s Al Qaeda too. (Rep. Louie Gohmert: "We know Al Qaeda has camps over with the drug cartels on the other side of the Mexican border. We know that people are now being trained to come in and act like Hispanic when they’re radical Islamists.") As the National Review has put it, our southern border is “our welcome mat for terrorists.”

Nevertheless, reports of suspected or confirmed terrorists coming in from the south are relatively rare. The State Department says it knows of no Hezbollah or Al Qaeda cells in the Western Hemisphere. American officials were quick to dismiss that specific threat from ISIS, too. “I’ve seen no indication that they are coming across the border with Mexico,” a Pentagon spokesman said on CNN. While Perry is at it, he might want to keep a closer eye on Canada though. 

Read more posts by Annie Lowrey

Filed Under: rick perry ,texas ,isis ,border security

Use the slidey thing to see how divergent the movie marketing campaigns can be in the U.S. versus the rest of the world. Especially, it seems, in Japan.

20th Century Fox / Via impawards.com

The Weinstein Company / Diamond Films Mexico / Via impawards.com

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This country is not real life.

Because Thórsmörk Valley.

Natasha Azevedo

Because sunsets.

Natasha Azevedo

Because Icelandic horses.

Natasha Azevedo

Because hot springs.

Natasha Azevedo

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Some travelers who find themselves exploring a strange city or unfamiliar part of town engage in a constant internal struggle to determine whether or not they are safe. Lots of graffiti and trash tumbleweeds? Lots of chain link and corrugated steel? Moderate to excessive amounts of blood? You might be in a "Sketchy Neighborhood"! Or you might be in your own neighborhood, or the neighborhood of a friend or delicious restaurant. Fortunately, a new app, called SketchFactor is here to help people totally devoid of basic awareness figure out if they have stepped into a potentially dangerous situation. [ more › ]

Because you want the feel of a phone without any of the use, check out today's end-of-day links: inside The Onion's art department, Jaden Smith as Garfield comics, Ice Bucket Challenge fail compilation, and a corn-eating kitty. Don't forget to follow Gothamist on Twitter and like us on Facebook. You can also get the top stories mailed to you—sign up here. [ more › ]

AMC recently announced that Halt and Catch Fire would be coming back for a second season, and the world literally exploded. Okay, not literally. That’s crazy. But people were pretty upset about it. Or maybe more surpised, and with good reason. The show limped into its season finale and pulled in a mere 574,000 viewers for the final episode. For comparison, that’s worse than a show AMC did cancel, Low Winter Sun. And also for comparison, Low Winter Sun was the worst shit ever.

So, what does a show have to do to get that coveted season two? Here’s a look at some of the other shows that recently were renewed — and yes, Halt and Catch Fire too — and whether or not they deserved another go-around.

Renewed Show: The Leftovers
Does it Deserve it? Yes (but also no).

Oh, The Leftovers. A show that flip flops between depressingly terrible and pretty amazing so much that I’m pretty sure it drove our own Drew Grant insane enough to go get married. HBO gave the thumbs up for a second season a couple days ago, and I’m okay with it for a couple reasons. One, with only episodes left in the season we basically know nothing what is going on. Yes, we know everyone is sad about what is going on, but that’s about it. Ratings and reviews aside, I refuse to let this show just dwindle away without at least knowing where everyone went and Departed to. Now I know Tom Perotta, the author of the novel, says that this isn’t “the point” of the story. But personally I read the book, and I think “the point” is he wrote a book about people being depressed and realized “oh, shit no one is going to read this,” so he tacked on an overarching Rapture-ish story that never gets resolved. This is TV land now, Mr. Perotta, we need answers. Also, I’m pretty sure Damon Lindelof needs to bring a show to a satisfying conclusion in order to stay alive, so for his sake I’m glad this show is getting a second season.

But why that added on “but also no?” Well, for one this show is consistently bleak to the point of being un-entertaining. I find it hard to reward that. On a much more personal note, Justin Theroux said a Leftovers renewal might hurt the chances of the Zoolander sequel happening, and the high school freshman in me cries at the thought.

Renewed show: The Strain
Does it deserve it? Yes

I, like many people, gave up on this show making any sort of sense when that one dude’s dick fell off. But that is apparently what the people want because this show is killing it in the ratings. The Guillermo del Toro directed pilot brought in 12.7 million viewers, and has been averaging around 11 million ever since. Despite the million that left, probably due solely to the horrific creature that sits on Corey Stoll’s head, it is still on top weekly with adult viewers.

And, though it pains me to admit it, I still like this show. It’s not a good show by any stretch of the imagination, but at the same time it doesn’t really pretend to be. Even though I support the Leftovers getting its second season, that show thrives on things not happening and people not talking. Literally, when it comes to these weirdos. Then over on FX you have Walder Frey wielding a giant badass sword and chopping off what has to be a record amount of vampire heads per episode. Maybe that is very telling of the American population’s attention span and what we want in our entertainment industry and blah blah blah bring on another season, dicks falling off be damned.

Renewed Show: Halt and Catch Fire
Does it Deserve it? No, God no.

If anyone out there thought this whole piece was an excuse to come to the defense of the much maligned Halt and Catch Fire, I have some bad news. In no way should AMC have kept this show around. Those ratings alone should have been enough to send this show the way of the Rubicon. But you know its bad when Lee Pace himself tells you “the point of the show” comes out in the season finale. Which yeah, I understand slow build but give us “the point” around at least episode five. Its even worse that AMC is justifying the second season with “We have a history of demonstrating patience through the early seasons of new shows, betting on talent and building audience over time.”

Let’s translate that, and see what AMC is banking on. Mr. Pace just starred as a big scary alien in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. GOTG raked in an estimated bajillion dollars at the box office. Scoot McNairy, also a major Halt player, is set to be in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice which is expected to make an estimated bajillion times two dollars at the box office. AMC is hoping the meteoric recognition these two are about to receive will bring with it more viewers. Like, millions of more viewers hopefully.

Renewed show: Finding Carter
Did it Deserve it: ???

Since I like covering all my bases, I’ll mention that MTV announced recently that its newest drama would be getting a season two. I’ve never seen a second of this show, so how would I know if it deserves it or not? Let’s go to the GIFs!

SICK BURN. Yes, give this cheeky little devil a second season.

When extremely rich people are in an elevator, sometimes insane things happen. At least that's what Beyoncé implied in the remix of "Flawless" released in August.

In the remix, she sings:

We escalatin', up in this bitch like elevators

The lyrics are in reference to the famed Elevator Incident of 2014, when Beyoncé's younger sister, singer Solange Knowles, attempted to thrash Jay-Z in an elevator after the Met Ball. This is one of the first acknowledgements of the incident from camp Beyoncé, but instead of pointing out who is to blame for the altercation, which was famously captured on leaked security footage, it points out who has money.

But was there really $1 billion on that elevator?

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We’ve just gotten used to Jefftown. Please don’t start calling the neighborhood on the border of Bushwick Brooklyn and Ridgewood Queens “Quooklyn.”

The Awl has some alternatives that we MUCH prefer:

1. Woodbush
2. Ridgewood
3. Bushwood
4. “Well my mailing address is Queens but I feel like I live in Brooklyn.”
5. Bushridge
6. “I mean I live off the L, so.”

Read the rest at The Awl or add your own in comments.

We Have Liftoff. Sort of.

"The Greater Houston Partnership's mission is to make the Houston region the best place to live, work and build a business. Over the past 25 years, our membership, comprised of over 2,000 leading companies, has tackled the region's most important issues that impact our community. Houston has enjoyed incredible growth, and the Greater Houston Partnership has played an important role, working to create jobs and advocating for a positive business environment that is conducive to growth and prosperity."

Design by: MMI Agency (Houston, TX)
Avalanche Consulting (Austin, TX)

Opinion/Notes: So, as a complement to today's South Korea post, here is one of the smooth destination brands I'm talking about. It's cool and well executed but it could also stand for a number of other cities' whose initial letter would fit in a diamond shape. For Houston, it works particularly well as the shapes sort of resemble a rocket — NASA connection — going into the stars. The inline typography is decent and the logo variations are fine if a little useless at times. (Every page on their site has a different logo). The print ads are a whole other language and concept that have a limited charm to them.

Related Links: Houston: The City With No Limits microsite
Press release

Select Quote: The campaign, designed to span multiple years, will address numerous objectives, supplementing work already being done by GHP to attract trade and capital investment and facilitate business recruitment and retention. A primary focus of the campaign will be to strengthen Houston's ability to attract top young professional talent to the region.

Spa Castles are better than spapartments We’re not exactly trying to say you’ve been looking like a tense wreck lately, but a day at a spa probably wouldn’t hurt. LivingSocial is going one step further and suggesting you go to an entire Spa Castle to recover your waning youthful good looks. The deal they’ve got cuts their $40 weekday general admission to $20, so you can take the train to the other train to the bus to College Point, Queens to look less haggard. If you want to get real fancy, you can go on a weekend for $25 instead of $50, since the weekend is when real relaxation happens. Spa Castle is like a giant factory of relaxation with massage chairs and hot tubs as far as the eye can see. They even have an entire Sauna Valley. We’re not experts on the spa industry yet, but we imagine Spa Castle… Read More

N for “Nope we’re never gonna beat bedbugs.” via Flickr user Brian Hey, remember when you were all “WOOOOOO it’s V-B Day, we beat bedbugs!” and we were the insane paranoid in the corner talking about how that wasn’t and would never be true? Yeah, you’re gonna pretend you didn’t say that now, because the Daily News reports that bedbugs were found on three N trains this week. See that approaching train? It contains US BEING RIGHT and also the seeds of your destruction. “Oh it’s just three trains,” you say, “stop being stupid.” No we will not stop being stupid. Oh sure the MTA told the News that they “exterminated” the bedbugs and that the cars were fumigated, but the thing about bedbugs is the thing about Pringles: You don’t find just one. We’re pretty confident in wildly speculating that a few of them hitched rides home with commuters, commuters who are going to… Read More

Here be a bunch of beer. Kind of… via Facebook Contrary to whatever the Times‘ next anthropological field study of Brooklyn finds, we’re not all raw vegans yet. Places like Meat Hook Sandwich (495 Lorimer Street) are here for you omnivores, except they keep to an 11am-4pm schedule which kind of limits things, since, shockingly, some of us work. Meat Hook’s making tumbling off the vegan wagon (or hopping on the paleo wagon) a little easier though, by offering a $25 steak, salad and unlimited beer dinner option on Wednesdays, starting this week according to Brooklyn Based. Yep, you read that right. Wednesdays from 5pm-9pm mean you get a solid cut of steak, some salad and UNLIMITED Miller High Life for $25. Don’t get too excited about the endless booze though. We were told by someone at Meat Hook that “it’s a steak special, not a drinking competition” and “if people come… Read More