Third Annual Smith Street Soup Festival this Saturday, Oct. 20

Photo: MK Metz

South Brooklyn Local Development Corp. is once again holding a "soup crawl" -- also called the "Festival des Soupes" -- on Saturday October 20th, from 1-4 p.m. (with a raindate of Sunday, October 21).

The event is a blast and people pour onto Smith Street from all over the city, so come early.

The last time we went we sampled delicious pasta fagiole from Lunetta, spinach and lentil soup from Bar Tabac (shown above), mulligatawny from Raga, lobster bisque from Verde, a creamy vegetable soup from Athena and many more. All it cost was $5 for a little blue wristband.

About 25 restaurants participate.

SBLDC runs the event to support the Culinary Arts Program in the local public School For International Studies. Celebrity Judges decide the winners.

Tickets will be sold by the high school students from tables on the corners of Smith & President, Smith & Butler, and Smith & Bergen Streets.

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Bay Ridge Sinkhole Patched; Hackert0wn in Williamsburg; and More Brooklyn Briefs

American Apparel goes Trekie. Photo: MKMetz

- Residents of the Chocolate Factory apartments on Park Avenue are being terrorized by gunfire and knife fights from rowdy patrons of a neighboring nightclub. NY Times

- Giant Bay Ridge sinkhole from hell is finally fixed. Brooklyn Eagle

- Tech entrepreneurs in Williamsburg plan “Hackert0wn” — replete with sleeping pods and a hydroponic farm. TRD

- Chris Olechowski, backed by Assemblyman Vito Lopez, won the race for the Democratic district leader in Brooklyn’s 50th Assembly District. The incumbent, Lincoln Restler, lost by 19 votes. NY Times

- Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School cut the ribbon Tuesday afternoon on their brand new $3 million athletic field. Bensonhurst Bean

- The Landmarks Commission is issuing violations to the former Gage & Tolner on Fulton Street that may add up to $5,000 a day. WSJ

- DOT makes room for pedestrians on Flatbush Avenue. Streetsblog

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Carroll Gardens Petition Against Homeless Shelter

As of this writing, 577 residents of Carroll Gardens have signed a petition against a homeless shelter for single adults planned for their neighborhood.

At the same time, the Brooklyn Eagle reports, local officials have protested "the project’s lack of details and question possible conflict-of-interest in the murky dealings surrounding the rental of the building from owner Charles Wertman -- a board member of the company submitting the proposal, Housing Solutions USA."

Not surprisingly, Housing Solutions is headed by a former Bloomberg official, Robert Hess.

More here.


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Verizon Is Selling 'Private' Information About Your Web Browsing

Photo: Idogcow

CNET reports that Verizon has just begun offering reports to marketers showing what their subscribers are doing on their phones and other mobile devices -- what websites they visit, what apps they use and their geographical location.

Verizon says it may link the data to third-party databases with information about customers' gender, age, and even details such as "sports enthusiast, frequent diner or pet owner."

"We're able to view just everything that they do," Bill Diggins, U.S. chief for the Verizon Wireless marketing initiative, told an industry conference. "And that's really where data is going today. Data is the new oil."

Read what information the company is selling about you, and how it probably violates federal wiretapping law, here.


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Brooklyn Biker Gangs Have Heavy Artillery; and More Brooklyn Briefs

- A raid on Brooklyn biker gangs Tuesday uncovered AK-47 assault rifles, homemade bombs, grenades -- and an actual cannon ready with .50-caliber rounds, aimed at the door. NY Times

- Lovers of Greek and Italian food in Bay Ridge and Bath Beach are mourning the loss of two popular restaurants. Brooklyn Eagle

- Teen auxiliary cop busted in underage alcohol sale frameup in Brooklyn. NY Daily News

- Charges dropped against alleged DUMBO 'upskirt' photographer/perv because victim won't testify. Gothamist

- Cobble Hill block will get makeover, following Landmarks approval of development plans. TRD

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Who Won Tuesday's Presidential Debate?

Did President Obama walk all over Mitt Romney? Did Romney convince the country that he's not the second coming of George Bush?

(And what did Mitt Romney do with his "binders full of women?!" And what does Ann think about that?)

Vote (at the top of the column to the right) for the winner of the second round between President Obama and Mitt Romney Tuesday night.

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Cripes, Black Friday 2012 is Almost Upon Us

Photo: Jbhthescots

Black Friday 2012 (November 23, 2012, the shopping day after Thanksgiving) is creeping up on us and the crazy rush of sales and hype will soon be here.

As part of the orchestrated Kabuki dance that accompanies the date, retailers "leak" "secret" Black Friday ads. According to i4U, that's called "taking control of your ads."

According to the cleverly-named blackfriday.com, several retailers -- including Harbor Freight and Fred's Super Dollar -- have already given permission to websites to publish partial Black Friday ads that they leaked themselves.

Here's a real Black Friday deal, however: Engadget reports a Sprint Black Friday ad that reveals $50 Galaxy S III on November 23rd only.

Deal News offers their predictions for upcoming Black Friday deals. For example, look for notable discounts on the iPad2, they say; and start looking for computer game deals before Thanksgiving. (Recently-released, popular game titles for 50% off retail, or about $30.)

In terms of toys, Deal News says, "It's not unrealistic to predict that many popular toys in late September and early October could eventually be marked down up to 50% off during the last week of November." And if you're traveling, Virgin Atlantic and Jet Blue should be offering great deals on Black Friday. See Deal News for more Black Friday predictions.

BTW, they also report that some Walmart workers may walk off the job on November 23 to protest the store's unfair labor practices, including low worker pay. (Sounds like American workers are learning from Foxconn.)

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The Fastest Internet Zip Codes in Brooklyn -- and the Slowest

Photo: Mangrove Mike

The Communications Workers of America reports that the median Internet download speed for the nation is 3.0 megabits per second -- equivalent to 3, 072 kilobits per second.

Which led us to wonder about Internet speeds in Brooklyn. Do some zip codes have faster download  speeds than others? (Upload speeds are slower.)

There's a handy Internet Speed Report app at the union's speedmatters.org website. We fed in Brooklyn zip codes and found the fastest and slowest download areas in Brooklyn.

It turns out that the fastest zip code in Brooklyn, 11204, is 5.7 times as fast as the slowest, 11209.

In other words, the average Internet user in the Bensonhurst / Bath Beach area can download a movie on Netflix 5.7 times faster than folks out in Bay Ridge and Fort Hamilton, who are frankly getting screwed, Internet-wise.

Students at Brooklyn College have an excuse for handing their homework in late as well. (And Coney Island's Internet moves at a snail's pace, but maybe everyone's having too much fun on the beach to mind.)

Here are the figures:

Fastest Internet Zip Codes in Brooklyn
11204 -- 21,004 kbps (Bensonhurst, Bath Bch)
11212 -- 19,849 kbps (Bushwick, Brownsville)
11218 -- 17,830 kbps (Kensington, Ditmas Pk)
11239 -- 16,388 kbps (Starrett City)
11236 -- 15,741 kbps (Canarsie, Jamaica Bay)
11213 -- 14,653 kbps (Crown Heights, Weeksville)
11211 -- 13,273 kbps (Williamsburg)
11219 -- 11,872 kbps (Borough Park)
11234 -- 11,042 kbps (Flatlands, Marine Pk, Mill Basin)
11208 -- 10,801 kbps (Cypress Hills)
11201 -- 10,432 kbps (Brooklyn Hts, Cobble Hill, D'twn, DUMBO)

Slowest Internet Zip Codes in Brooklyn
11224 -- 4,050 kbps (Sea Gate, Coney Island)
11210 -- 3,771 kbps (Brooklyn College, Flatbush)
11209 -- 3,659 kbps (Ft. Hamilton, Bay Ridge)

Other Brooklyn zip codes fall somewhere in the middle. Visit speedmatters.org to look up your zip code's average speed.

BTW: The FCC's goal for the country is 51,200 kbps (50 mpbs) download by 2015.


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Rolling Stones NOT Coming to Barclays Center

Brooklyn can't get no satisfaction -- the Rolling Stones will not be perfroming at Barclays Center on their 50th anniversary tour.

While the rumors have been coming fast and furious, with many people swearing it was definite, the venerable rock band will actually be coming to Newark, New Jersey's Prudential Center in December.

Tickets will be available on October 26th at noon (pre-sale on October 20th). The concerts are on December 13th and 15th. More at the Stones' site.

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New York Comic Con 2012 Packs In 115,000 Geeks

A clearly over-capacity crowd of geeks, cybergamers, zombies, superheros, cosplayers, Homestuck creatures, anime and comic fans packed the Jacob Javits Center this weekend (Thursday through Sunday) for New York Comic Con 2012.

News sources and organizers are saying more than 115,000 attended the convention this year, up from 105,000 last year.  It was so packed there were times when no one could move, especially in the merchandise aisles.

Thousands of people who already had tickets were held outside the center for up to an hour on Saturday for reasons unexplained. (Luckily, they were surrounded by zombies from The Walking Dead.)

Once in, however, one of the thrills of Comic Con is watching the costumed fans. There were many Captain Americas this year, along with Dr. Whos, Marios, Spidey, Cobra Commanders, Sailor Moons, Star Wars characters, Game of Thrones characters, Hunger Games characters, video game characters and Lolita types. And zombies.

Multiples.

An assortment of raiders from various time periods.

This.

Many wore strange, blurry contact lenses this year, like the woman in the middle. (Click to enlarge.)

Kinda creepy.

Hulk.

Khal Drogo from 'Game of Thrones.'

One of the most stunning was the Engineer from Prometheus, played by Alex Fuller. The man is huge; those are real muscles, with white body makeup that takes hours to apply.

This girl had what looked like pieces of glass sticking out of her body.

It was a furry dragon and it moved.

People gathered around the Just Dance stage hoping to compete or at least get some swag.

When this guy danced no one wanted to get near his sword.

A guy made of Legos (or some other kind of blocks) takes a rest.

Retro games were big this year.

Pac-Man!

There were hundreds of panels, screenings and signings by people like Stan Lee, (creator of Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk, X-Men, etc.), Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), Adam West (the original Batman on TV), Lou Ferrigno (The Incredible Hulk), actor Ian McDiarmid (Palpatine in the Star Wars series), Elmo and countless others.

There was also a big computer game competition, shown above.

Scott Adsit from '30 Rock' looks at some comic art.

It was a great convention but the organizers have to do something about the overcrowding. The capacity of Javitz, according to the architects, is 85,000. More than 115,000 people attended the convention and many on both Saturday and Sunday. At times, it felt unsafe.

See more photos at Brooklyn Vegan.

Photos copyright MK Metz 2012

- NYC Comic Con 2011
- NYC Comic Con 2010

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