I have been trying to find a cheap used Mac laptop for a friend on Craigslist before I go to Denmark this Xmas. I was delighted to find a $300 used iBook for sale, but when I wrote to the seller she told me she was in Manchester and would send the laptop by express mail. Already then I thought it sounded fishy. The whole point of using Craigslist instead of eBay is that you get to complete the transaction in person. But I wrote back to see what the seller, Amanda Benson, had in mind. Here’s what she wrote:
Hello
I will pay for a 2 days delivery so you will receive the laptop within 3-4 days.
Obviously we need a safe way to complete this deal that will allow us to make sure we receive what we are after.
I have found a way for us to complete the deal safely and fast, and in this way you will receive the laptop in less than 3 days, if you move fast as well. The solution is provided by a worldwide delivery company called TNT. TNT is similar to Fedex, DHL or UPS and they will provide assistance in hadling the payment and delivery of the laptop.
With this procedure you will have the change to test the laptop before I receive my payment.
The procedure is explained on the TNT webpage and please click on the link below to the TNT website to see how we can complete the deal safely and fast directly from the website of the company.
Hmm, now the lure of getting a cheap laptop had me wrapped up in wishful thinking. An honest third party company is surely some form of guarantee? People please, it took one Google search of “Amanda Benson and iBook” to find several pages declaring this a hoax. For some reason the scammers haven’t thought to use different aliases. The Washington Post even did a story on it in October. The TNT website is a fake! There are posts online commenting on this as far back as June 2007. Dammit. Be careful out there.
Many people I meet have a hard time understanding the anger that exists towards the United States among nationalists in Puerto Rico. One of the big heroes of the fight for Puerto Rican independence in the 20th century was Pedro Albizu Campos, a Harvard educated lawyer and leader of the Nationalist Party. He died in 1965 after suffering a stroke in prison.
Check out the trailer for a new documentary film that explains who he is: ¿Quien es Albizu Campos?
Could George W. Bush ever possibly be impeached? There’s no better way to find out than to actually put him on trial. The clever folks at the Culture Project are mounting a mock trial with no script and no actors that will debate the case for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.
They are doing this over 5 Mondays, each week discussing a different article (1st week: Initiation & Continuation of Illegal War, 2nd week: Torture & Extraordinary Rendition, and so forth).
Mondays will tackle five articles of impeachment directly, through depositions, modeled on actual impeachment hearings bringing in renowned lawyers from both sides of the argument, who will interview expert witnesses culled from the arenas of the military, public policy, international negotiation, and media.
Culture Project is bringing together some of the most important and knowledgeable thinkiers: Michael Ratner (President, Center for Constitutional Rights), Bruce Fein (Assoc. Deputy Attorney General under President Ronald Reagan; member, ABA Task Force on presidential signing statements), Retired Colonel Ann Wright, writer Joe Conason, attorney Martin Garbus, attorney Elizabeth Holtzman, and many others.
It’s guaranteed to be a lot less frivolous and salacious than the Clinton impeachment hearings, not to mention depressing and aggravating – but I wouldn’t miss it. If no one is willing to actually do this in real life, the least we can do is support the make believe version.
Yesterday, I worked for a few hours in a cafe with free wifi, where this guy served me coffee. Then I went to hear this girl perform her “Calendar Songs” accompanied by a Danish guy who made this movie (watch it!).
No, not careless. Carless. This is what Park Avenue, Manhattan looked like before 1922.
Environmental blogger, Noimpactman, hopes New York might someday look like this again. I think it sounds so nice, I’d be willing to give up 2am taxi rides for it. Just give me bikes, trains, and trams instead. (thanks to Caspar for the link).
One of the hubs of the Danish community in New York
is the Danish Seaman’s Church in Brooklyn. I haven’t actually been there yet, but I’ve gone as far as signing up to their mailing list. I’m pretty sure you don’t need to be baptized to participate in the new beginners classes in Danish they are offering on Mondays for the reasonable price of 200 dollars for 15 lessons (although a little praying might make it easier for non-Danes to pronounce “rød grød med fløde”).
This is what happens when you don’t lie or say something obscene to get out of jury duty. It wasn’t a bad experience, I’m just happy I won’t have to do it again for the next six years. I think I may have recruited some new members for the society, though.
This seemed pretty ridiculous. There were so many unhappy people having their drinks, medicine, and toiletries confiscated.
Once we landed in New York, I was asked by a police officer to switch off my cellular phone in the baggage retrieval area because, as he said, “Those emails that have been going around about mobile phones not always being phones? They’re true.” Really? OK.
Laughable as it seems, apparently one airplane really was brought down by a toothpaste tube with plastic explosives 30 years ago.
It happened to be in the case of Luis Posada Carriles, who blew up a Cubana Airlines flight with 73 people on board, but is being protected by the US government. A terrorist you say? Clearly it depends on who the target is.
