Ryanair’s O’Leary Calls for Single-Pilot Commercial Flights

1st\NW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

From Ainonline by Charles Alcock

Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary is pushing for single-pilot commercial aircraft operations. In a September 8 interview with the Financial Times, O’Leary argued that copilots are essentially redundant in modern airliners because “the computer does most of the flying.”

“Given the sophistication of our aircraft we believe that one pilot flying can operate safely on short routes and reduce fares for all passengers.”

O’Leary argued that since regulations allow trains to operate with just one driver, the practice ought to be safe for short-haul flights.

“In 25 years with over about 10 million flights, we’ve had one pilot who suffered a heart attack in flight and he landed the plane,” he told the Financial Times, adding that flight attendants could cover for copilots, who he maintained are essentially required only to “make sure the first fella doesn’t fall asleep and knock over one of the computer controls.”

O’Leary has a track record of making what some would regard as outlandish proposals for the future of air transport, including floating a plan to charge passengers to use aircraft toilets.

Guy on White Screen Babbling About Google Instant

1st\NW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

We're not sure why every tech product launch involves a guy on a white screen babbling, but here's the video of a guy from Google on a white screen babbling about the new Google Instant, which is a new search enhancement that shows results as you type.

Kanye is Santayana Compared to 50 Cent

4th\NW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

George Santayana was a famous Spanish-American aphorist. His most famous quote is "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Let's compare that to one of 50 Cent's tweets,"Man I aint even feeding these hoes. A bitch want a free meal she should go to the shelter. I'm hard on a hoe cause its hard out here! Lol"

Now let's compare that to a Kanye West tweet. "I wear my scars... It's almost like I have to where a suit to juxtapose my image and I won't lie... IT WORKS!"

So, it does sound like Kanye is as deep as Santayana compared to 50 Cent.

NuBod ARM SHAPER

4th\NW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

• NuBod is Designed with Slender Arm Technology - Lose Inches off Your Arms
• Fashionable: Can Be Worn Anywhere - Under Your Jacket or Alone
• Flexible, Breathable & Comfortable - Can Be Worn to Work Out
• NO Exercise, No Plastic Surgery - Just Great Arms Instantly

Saul Austerlitz’s ANOTHER FINE MESS

3rd\SE Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

From Amazon

Saul Austerlitz’s Another Fine Mess is an attempt to right that wrong. Running the gamut of film history from City Lights to Knocked Up, Another Fine Mess retells the story of American film from the perspective of its unwanted stepbrother--the comedy. In 30 long chapters and 100 shorter entries, each devoted primarily to a single performer or director, Another Fine Mess retraces the steps of the American comedy film, filling in the gaps and following the connections that link Mae West to Doris Day, or W. C. Fields to Will Ferrell. The first book of its kind in more than a generation, Another Fine Mess is an eye-opening, entertaining, and enlightening tour of the American comedy, encompassing the masterpieces, the box-office smashes, and all the little-known gems in between.

"I was enrapt, argumentative, gobsmacked, amused and ready to rethink what I know about American film comedy. Crack this book open, and let the debate—and the flying pies—begin." —Glen David Gold, author, Carter Beats the Devil and Sunnyside

Lil Wayne Backs Nadal and Clijsters in U.S. Open

3rd\SE Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

From Sports Illustrated by Bryan Armen Graham

When Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., (a/k/a Lil Wayne) isn’t cutting some of the freshest and most inventive music of today, the Grammy-award winning rap artist can be found watching, talking or blogging about sports. Even while serving an eight-month prison term on Rikers Island stemming from a 2007 weapons charge, Wayne finds time to opine on the latest news and release new music. We asked Wayne, who is an avid tennis fan, to share his thoughts on the upcoming U.S. Open, which begins Monday in New York. We mailed our request along with a self-addressed stamped envelope and three leafs of SI stationery … and Wayne’s thoughtful outlook for the tournament arrived in our mailbox yesterday.

Arcade Fire and Google Maps Team Up to Create Personalized Videos

3rd\SE Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

From UTNE by David Doody

On the website The Wilderness Downtown the über-indie band Arcade Fire offers fans personalized music videos, labeling them a “Chrome Experiment” that are “[m]ade with some friends from Google.” (Chrome is Google’s web browser and the site recommends that you use Chrome to get the whole experience of the video.) Visitors to the site are instructed to type the address of the home where they grew up. What ensues are a series of videos interacting with one another, personalized to the address the user put it using Google map images, as well as a page for viewers to interact with the video and write a message of their own, all set to the song "We Used To Wait" by Arcade Fire. Whether or not you’re a fan of Arcade Fire, or of Google for that matter, this is a pretty interesting step for music video. And a pretty wild ride. Get your own personalized video, or check out the video for Utne’s offices.

I typed the address to the Sephora near 86th and Lexington that Caroline Giuliani allegedly stole $100 worth of makeup from (1st\NW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix) into The Wilderness Downtown website and I made an amateur video of the video. The video shows an aerial view of the location and then intersperses the video with short street level clips of the Upper East Side location.

THE ANTHOLOGY OF RAP

2nd\NW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

From Yale University Press

From the school yards of the South Bronx to the tops of the Billboard charts, rap has emerged as one of the most influential cultural forces of our time. In The Anthology of Rap, editors Adam Bradley and Andrew DuBois demonstrate that rap is also a wide-reaching and vital poetic tradition born of beats and rhymes.

This pioneering anthology brings together more than three hundred lyrics written over thirty years, from the “old school” to the “golden age” to the present day. Rather than aim for encyclopedic coverage, Bradley and DuBois render through examples the richness and diversity of rap’s poetic tradition. They feature both classic lyrics that helped define the genre, including Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five’s “The Message” and Eric B. & Rakim’s “Microphone Fiend,” as well as lesser-known gems like Blackalicious’s “Alphabet Aerobics” and Jean Grae’s “Hater’s Anthem.”

Available Oct 25, 2010
920 p., 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
5 b/w illus.
ISBN: 9780300141900
Cloth: $35.00

THE COLONY

4th\NW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

From Discovery Channel

What would you do in the wake of a global catastrophe? Even if you survived it, could you survive the aftermath?

Season Two of THE COLONY introduces viewers to a new group of volunteers with differing backgrounds, skills and personalities, to bear witness to how these colonists will survive and rebuild in a world without electricity, running water, government or outside communication. Over the course of 10 episodes, the colonists — who include a construction foreman, teacher, carpenter and auto mechanic — must work to utilize and strengthen their exploration, technology and survival skills in ways they've never had to before. THE COLONY features on-going commentary and input from experts in homeland security, engineering, psychology and the medical community, with expertise and insight into what the future could look like after a biological disaster.

Filmed on 10 acres of abandoned neighborhood on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, THE COLONY'S simulated environment had been left decimated by Hurricane Katrina, a naturally occurring disaster zone that was slated to be bulldozed and turned into a public park. Empty buildings, weedy streets and the backwoods are all the colonists have to work with as they scavenge essentials for survival from their surroundings while fending off threats such as wild animals and malicious outsiders.

THE COLONY Trailer

THE NEW BROOKLYN COOKBOOK

2nd\NW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

Filled with mouthwatering recipes, beautiful photographs, and scenes from some of the most vibrant restaurants in America today, "The New Brooklyn Cookbook" celebrates the wave of culinary energy that has transformed this thriving borough and infused its kitchens and dining rooms with passion, vigor, and big flavors. Starring the trail-blazing chefs and entrepreneurs who made it all happen, this gorgeous book helps readers recreate the signature dishes of Brooklyn in the comfort of their own kitchens. With enthusiasm and insight, husband-and-wife duo Melissa and Brendan Vaughan highlight the 'new' tastes of Brooklyn... The Vaughans also profile some of Brooklyn's best food makers and purveyors, from cheesemakers and picklers to chocolatiers and bakers, giving readers an inside look at the ingredients behind their favorite restaurant dishes and the food culture that supports their creation.

Via\Amazon

The New Brooklyn Cookbook doesn’t come out till October, but you’ll have a chance to get an early copy at the Brooklyn Kitchen on September 11, when Sean Rembold (Marlow & Sons), Frank Castronovo (Frankies Spuntino), Tom Kearney (Farm on Adderley), and Kheedim Oh (Mama O’s Kimchee) participate in a panel discussion. The $65 admission includes an early copy of the book (featuring recipes from Roberta’s, Saul, DuMont, Applewood, Al Di La, the Good Fork, and 25 others) and tastes from some of the featured restaurants. New Brooklyn Cookbook Tasting and Signing, September 11, 3PM [The Brooklyn Kitchen]

Via\Grubstreet

Freedom: A Novel by Jonathan Franzen

2nd\NW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

From Amazon Best of the Month, August 2010:

"The awful thing about life is this:" says Octave to the Marquis in Renoir's Rules of the Game. "Everyone has his reasons." That could be a motto for novelists as well, few more so than Jonathan Franzen, who seems less concerned with creating merely likeable characters than ones who are fully alive, in all their self-justifying complexity. Freedom is his fourth novel, and, yes, his first in nine years since The Corrections. Happy to say, it's very much a match for that great book, a wrenching, funny, and forgiving portrait of a Midwestern family (from St. Paul this time, rather than the fictional St. Jude). Patty and Walter Berglund find each other early: a pretty jock, focused on the court and a little lost off it, and a stolid budding lawyer, besotted with her and almost burdened by his integrity. They make a family and a life together, and, over time, slowly lose track of each other. Their stories align at times with Big Issues--among them mountaintop removal, war profiteering, and rock'n'roll--and in some ways can't be separated from them, but what you remember most are the characters, whom you grow to love the way families often love each other: not for their charm or goodness, but because they have their reasons, and you know them. --Tom Nissley

Microscopic Shrimp in New York's Water Supply

1st\NW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

The Consumerist\By Ben Popken on August 31, 2010 4:00 PM

New York's water is ... filled with teeny-tiny shrimp. They're called copepods. They're 1-2 mm long, transparent, have two sets of antenna, and feast on mosquito larvae. What are they doing in the water supply? Well, New York's water is of such high quality that it isn't required by the EPA to mechanically filter its H2O...

Wild Feral Raccoons in New York City

1st\NW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

Google's Eric Schmidt on Cyber Past

1st\NW Quadrant: Approval Matrix

Reading this article made me think of my "Young Folly" teen spirit days. And I have to say, I'm happy Facebook and Twitter weren't around.
-N

By Zoe Kleinman\BBC

Young people may one day have to change their names in order to escape their previous online activity, Google boss Eric Schmidt has warned. Mr Schmidt told the Wall Street Journal he feared they did not understand the consequences of having so much personal information about them online.

He said: "I don't believe society understands what happens when everything is available, knowable and recorded by everyone all the time... I mean we really have to think about these things as a society."

The firm has been busy bolstering its social networking presence recently. Many believe....the search giant is about to launch another social network. Some commentators have already given the rumoured product a name: Google.me.

And We're Back!

The novel is done, and the hiatus is over! We'll be posting slowly and selectively from the Approval Matrix until we can get back to posting the complete Matrix. I'm saying we, because I have some help; however, the person has chosen to remain anonymous and post using the pseudonym N. The first post on Eric Schmidt is coming soon.