Window, Front Street, DUMBO

Spring flowers liven up this Front Street window.

Photo by MK Metz

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This Is Why We're Deleting Our Twitter Account

While McBrooklyn never published over Twitter as much as some blogs, we did, from time to time, send out a tweet if something big was happening.

Those days are over. Why? Today we read on RT that Twitter has sold billions of archived tweets believed by their creators to have vanished forever.

According to RT,  the UK-based DataSift firm has bought every tweet posted since January 2010. The business intelligence and data-mining platform will be the first company to offer the archive for sale to entrepreneurs who can't wait to get their hands on Tweeters' individual data.

DataSift owns what it calls “an invaluable information source” with 250 billion tweets posted in 2010 alone.

We just now closed out account. It takes 30 days for data to be removed from the system.

Photo by Josh Semans, Creative Commons license

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'Best Friends Forever' Filming In DUMBO

NBC's new comedy "Best Friends Forever," was filming on Washington Street in DUMBO this week.

BFF stars Lennon Parham, Luka Jones, Jessica St. Clair, Daija Owens and Stephen Schneider

A release from NBC says:
"Best Friends Forever," from executive producer Scot Armstrong ("Old School," "Hangover 2"), is a new comedy about old friends, new beginnings and awkward situations.

Daija Owens as Queenetta

Jessica St. Clair ("Bridesmaids") and Lennon Parham ("Accidentally on Purpose") star as Jessica and Lennon, best friends who live on opposite sides of the country with the men in their lives. When Jessica is served divorce papers, Lennon convinces her to return home to Brooklyn and back into the apartment they used to share. Soon, the girls fall into old habits: movie marathons and late-night, girl-talk sessions -- none of which is good news for Lennon's live-in boyfriend, Joe (Luka Jones, Upright Citizens Brigade). Stephen Schneider ("Happy Endings") and Daija Owens also star.

Photos by MK Metz

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Long Lines at New Brooklyn GAP; Broken Angel House; and More Brooklyn Briefs

- Whole Foods gets green light for Gowanus mega-market. Brooklyn Eagle. . . The final vote took 9 seconds. PMFA

- A new Gap Outlet opened to long lines on Friday at the corner of Gallatin Place on the Fulton Mall. Carroll Gardens Patch

- Anyone got a dock? PortSide needs a new spot for the Mary A. Whalen by the end of April. Otherwise, the oil tanker turned floating museum will likely be scrapped. Brooklyn Eagle

- A group of Williamsburg parents is fighting the latest plans for a charter school they say will damage their existing public schools. dnainfo

- Brooklyn's broken down Broken Angel House hits the auction block. Observer

- Bones found in Sullivan County woods ID'd as Russian immigrant who disappeared from Brooklyn. Relatives: "Something to do with his work." RecordOnline

- A 26-year-old Florida woman has been charged with setting the January fire that burned and destroyed 'The Senator', a beloved 3,500-year-old cypress tree. Huff Post

- By the way, aspirin was found to stop the spread of cancer. NY Daily News

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'Nobody Cooperating' In DUMBO reBar Knifing

Several versions of the Saturday night / Sunday morning stabbing incident at popular gastropub reBar in DUMBO have been going around, including the story that there hadn't been a stabbing at all, but that a patron cut his foot on glass.

A photo of a suspiciously-youthful suspect being taken into custody (see BHB) negates that, as does confirmation by police (see Brooklyn Eagle) that a stabbing did indeed occur.

Now the Brooklyn Eagle has published a clear photo of the victim, obviously in pain, being wheeled out of the Front Street eatery.

An reBar employee told McBrooklyn that "two customers got into a fight."

A police source told the Eagle  that “nobody is cooperating” in the investigation, including the victim.

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72 Poplar; Neo-Nazis in Greenpoint; Cheap Computers; and More Brooklyn Briefs

- A tipster tells Brownstoner that DOB has approved conversion plans for 72 Poplar Street, the former precinct in Brooklyn Heights.

- Polish neo-Nazis are prowling the streets of Greenpoint. Gawker

- Nine new townhouses going up on State Street in Boerum Hill. Brooklyn Eagle

- Free pancakes at IHOP today! IHOP

- Brooklyn residents who received sanitation summonses used videotapes to prove their innocence. Could a new law be in the making? NY Times

- Computers and fax machines available for a song in Downtown Brooklyn, courtesy of NY State. Brooklyn Eagle

- Construction underway at former Ozzie's space, not pretty. Here's Park Slope

- Aroma to end D'Amico roasting coffee on Court Street? PMFA via South Brooklyn Post

- Cops catch teens who shoved 81-year-old onto subway tracks. Brooklyn Paper

- Farmers are looking to expand onto rooftops in the outer boroughs. TRD

- Fannie to sell foreclosed homes with stipulation they become rentals. TRD

- Science: Wealthy are more likely to steal, lie and cheat. Bloomberg

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CIA Receives More Funding for Successful Facebook Program

Just because it's brought to us by the Onion doesn't mean it's not true . . .

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Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO Mourn Respected Lawyer, P.S. 8 Dad

Michael Rothenberg, executive director of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI) and local dad, was mourned at a memorial service Sunday at Plymouth Church in Brooklyn Heights.

He died at age 47 after a plunge from the 29th floor of 100 Jay Street in DUMBO, landing on the fourth-floor terrace over a Chase bank.

Rothenberg's death shocked a wide swath of people across DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights, who knew him as a kind man, a competitive squash player, and a thoughtful neighbor. According to the extensive obituary in the Brooklyn Eagle, Rothenberg was a dedicated volunteer at P.S. 8, where his children attend school.

Rothenberg oversaw the team of attorneys and activists fighting to remove toxins (including PCBs) from more than 700 public schools across the city. Other issues he worked on included ending Medicaid discrimination and winning aid for the families of union workers killed on 9/11.

An extended tribute written by Beth Rasin describes Rothenberg's razor sharp wit and penchant for puns, his chocolate chip cookies, his vision for NYLPI and how he made himself available to law students and young lawyers.

His family and colleagues at NYLPI issued a joint statement reading in part:

“Michael was the kind of person we all strive to be: a fearless advocate for those less fortunate, a wonderful role model to his young children, and a dedicated friend,” said Jonathan Kopp, a close family friend. “This is a great loss for everyone who was touched by him."

"A man with an enormous heart, a compassionate soul and a burning desire to better the lives of others, Michael Rothenberg is survived by his wife, Zerline Goodman; their children, Brice, Garon and Zaya Rothenberg; his mother, Eleanor; and his brothers, David and Seth. "

Brooklyn Activist Lawyer Dies in Fall From Roof Brooklyn Eagle

Top photo courtesy NYU; bottom photo by MK Metz

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Why Not Rate All City Workers the Way We Rate Teachers?

New York City plans to release today what were supposed to be internal rankings of about 18,000 public school teachers who were graded using a complex, experimental and statistically bogus mathematical formula with an up to 66 percent margin of error

Many experts have come out against the plan to publish the rankings. (More at NY Times)

Tellingly, charter school teachers are not being rated.

How about this: Let's grade ALL city workers, including politicians, using similar criteria. To make it work, of course, we must use a flawed formula and tragically incorrect data.

Then we must make sure that the workers are sorry they ever set their eyes on this ferocious city by publicly denigrating them. In spite of the meaninglessness of the grading system, we must brand them with a scarlet letter that will follow them for the rest of their lives.

Let's start with Mayor Bloomberg.

Photo: The Scarlet Letter, at Amazon

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Bridges Connecting Brooklyn to Manhattan Screwed Up This Weekend

Thinking about driving to Manhattan this weekend? Maybe you should leave your car at home because the Brooklyn, Manhattan AND Williamsburg bridges will all have partial shutdowns.

- The Brooklyn Bridge will have all lanes closed to Manhattan 12:01 a.m. to 7 a.m. Saturday, 12:01 a.m. to 9 a.m. Sunday, and 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Monday.

- One of two eastbound lanes on the south upper roadway of the Manhattan Bridge will be closed Saturday from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

- The Brooklyn-bound south inner roadway of the Williamsburg Bridge will be closed 5 a.m. to noon either Saturday or Sunday.

- Travel between Manhattan and Queens will also be impacted as the eastbound south outer roadway of the Queensboro Bridge will be closed 2 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

More weekend traffic updates at the NY Daily News.

Photo of Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges courtesy of Google Earth

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