Impressive Christmas Tree, Metrotech, Downtown Brooklyn

Photo: MK Metz

The MetroTech Christmas tree in Downtown Brooklyn, looking pretty darn impressive.

The 50-foot tree is a a Fraser fir from North Carolina.

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The [XXX] Has a Record of Every Email, Post, Phone Call, Purchase and Text You Made Over the Last 10 Years

Photo by Thomas Leuthard

Be careful what you post, text, email, Google, purchase or say: According to [XXX], a 32-year veteran of the [XXX] who helped design it, a top-secret program has been collecting all of Americans' personal data for years.

The Times says [XXX] is among a group of whistle-blowers "who have each risked everything — their freedom, livelihoods and personal relationships — to warn Americans about the dangers of [XXX] domestic spying." 

In articles and videos posted by the New York Times, Wired and other news sources, [XXX]  (winner of the Callaway Award for Civic Courage on November 13, 2012) explains how the [XXX] collects all data -- email, book purchases, searches, texts, calls, etc. -- of everyone in the country, including members of Congress and children.

If anyone is targeted (by someone in the [XXX] or their friends or your enemies) all data collected over the last 10 years is "retroactively analyzed"  to build a multilayer profile of everything that person has done or communicated this decade.

Since the amount of data has mushroomed, [XXX] is building a huge facility in [XXX] -- more than five times the size of the US Capitol -- where accelerated capturing, storing, and analyzing using supercomputers will take place.

This includes bank records and stock purchases, personal health records, private text messages to friends, and what you just bought at CVS.

For more links to articles and background information, see Reddit.

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Holiday Crafts Fairs in Brooklyn December 1 and 2, 2012

Photo by Eob

This weekend is a great one for holiday craft fairs and parties in Brooklyn.

From old favorites like the Winter Festival and Artisan Craft Fair at Brooklyn Friends School to the hip new Brooklyn Night Bazaar, Brooklynites looking for an alternative to the big chains will be buying their presents from small-time crafts people this weekend.

Here are a few:

- The Brooklyn Night Bazaar: A holiday fair with good food and music, this year's Bazaar is taking place every Friday and Saturday from November 23 until December 22. Williamsburg. More here.

- Brooklyn Holiday Book Fair: December 1, presented by the Old Stone House and Honey and Wax Booksellers. Features "rare and extraordinary books" from booksellers from across Brooklyn, and a reading of a rare first edition copy of The Gift of the Magi, by a (spoiler alert) surprise Brooklyn lit notable. More here.

- Holiday Handmade Cavalcade, a two day show of items crafted by the "Etsy NY Team" December 1 and 2 in Williamsburg. More at about.com

- Winter Festival and Artisan Craft Fair at Brooklyn Friends School:  A holiday shopping event combined with a children's carnival on on Saturday December 1. More than 40 vendors, food, plenty of activities for kids, book sale, skateboard demo and more. Pearl Street in Downtown Brooklyn near the Marriott. Details here.

- P.S. 8 Holiday Craft Fair: family annual fundraising event on December 1 is designed to bring the P.S. 8 community in Brooklyn Heights together for an afternoon of crafting, shopping and eating. Info here.

*** Many more holiday fairs and shopping ops listed at the Brooklyn Eagle. ***

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Perfect Gift for that Special Brooklyn Someone: A Rosie All-in-One Chicken Coop

Your shopping is over: Here's the must-have gift of a lifetime for that special Brooklynite in your life. We'll let the PR speak for itself:

"Victory Chicken, New York City’s premier provider of backyard chicken coops, has launched a special holiday version of its signature Rosie All-in-one coop-and-bird package just in time for the 2012 holidays.

The Holiday Rosie package includes a coop and run (built in Bushwick, Brooklyn) along with 3 adolescent hens, two months of supplies, Victory Chicken’s “Chicken 101” training for the new chicken keeper and a soon-to-be-iconic Victory Chicken T-shirt.

Purchasers also get an elegant Willy Wonka-esque Certificate Of Announcement for all of the above, made to be handed off on the holiday of your choice to the aspiring chicken keeper in your life."

The entire package costs $785 in Brooklyn only, or can be purchased on a rent to own basis with a $300 down payment and then $50/month for a year. (More to deliver outside of Brooklyn.)

To find out more, visit www.victorychickenco.com, email info@victorychickenco.com or call (347) 803-0777.

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Quadrozzi Wants to Expand Brooklyn Shipping Empire with Toxic Sludge

Brooklyn concrete company head John Quadrozzi wants to dredge toxic sludge from the Gowanus Canal Superfund site, barge it to Red Hook and dump it into the Gowanus Bay to expand his shipping terminal, DNAinfo reports.

The proposal would allow Quadrozzi's Gowanus Bay Terminal to accommodate larger ships and enlarge the property that Quadrozzi rents to industrial businesses.

The EPA declined to comment. Many more details here.

Photo courtesy Dept. of City Planning

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Broker in Brooklyn Defrauds Customers Out of Millions

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has charged a Greenpoint, Brooklyn brokerage firm with defrauding three customers out of more than $4 million, the Brooklyn Eagle reports.

The firm, TWS Financial, is headed by Polish-born Roman Sledziejowski and catered to the Polish immigrant community in Brooklyn.

Sledziejowski’s attorney told the Eagle that the charges have "only been made within FINRA, not within the legal system."

TWS's website says, "All client funds are deposited with top-rated and secure financial institutions, client funds are deposited with JP Morgan Chase Bank . . ."

Only maybe they weren't.

More here.

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Caring for Imortal Jellyfish is a Full Time Job

Photo: Wild Guru Larry

There is a man in Japan that has spent the last 15 years caring for a brood of immortal jellyfish -- a form of life that, instead of dying when it gets old, ages backwards until it's a baby and then starts growing old again.

He's the only person who knows how to take care of them -- and it is a full-time job, caring for the immortal jellyfish. Full story at the New York Times.

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Brooklyn Dad Shows He Cares by Swinging Chain at Kid's High School

Brooklyn dad Michael Canaii (pictured above in FB) showed up at his daughter's Manhattan high school swinging a heavy chain with a padlock at students, yelling that his daughter was smoking weed, and demanding to speak to the principal.

The NY Post reports that he was arrested for criminal possession of a weapon, menacing and pot possession.

A number of Post commenters expressed the opinion that Canii (whose daughter lives with her mother) was "just looking out for his kid." Thanks, dad.


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Madonna's Bra; New Gas Pipeline; Holiday House Decorations; and More Brooklyn Briefs

- Court issues restraining order for Carroll Gardens homeless shelter. Brooklyn Eagle

- Coming to the Brooklyn Museum: Madonna’s provocative conical bra that she wore on her 1990 Blonde Ambition tour. NY Daily News

- A new natural gas pipeline is coming to Brooklyn and Queens, after President Barack Obama cleared the way for it to be built on Tuesday. DNAinfo

- Looters stole over $100,000 worth of equipment from schools after Hurricane Sandy. Gothamist

- The 10 best Dyker Heights holiday house decorations. The FW

- Awesome ‘Global Rainbow’ over NYC honors Sandy victims. Brooklyn Eagle  

 - Mock all you want, but if you want to write literary fiction or poetry, "Brooklyn is still the place to be." The Millions 

- A U.N. report says sea levels are rising faster than projected. Reuters

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Your Couch Is Probably Making You Sick

Photo by Chris H Connelly

Up to 85 percent of couches have been found to contain toxic flame retardants, a number of newspapers reported yesterday, including USA Today.

Flame retardants are linked to hormone disruption, cancer and neurological toxicity, according to scientists.

Children of mothers who had retardants in their blood during pregnancy had lower birth weight, lower IQ scores and other problems.

Devilishly, flame retardants are even more dangerous when they burn -- and they burn like crazy, researchers say.

After catching fire, they emit toxic gases, soot and smoke that account for most fire deaths and injuries, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

So why use them? USA Today says: "An investigation earlier this year by The Chicago Tribune, citing tobacco industry documents, found that tobacco companies surreptitiously pushed for flame-retardant furniture -- rather than fire-safe cigarettes -- as the best way to reduce house fires."

More here.


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