Monkeys Know When Humans Are Assholes

Photo by Kevin J.

An experiment found that monkeys reject food from humans who are mean to other humans.

As reported in the Fragments-of-Truth blog (originally in Nature but not yet online), the experiment involved Actor A, trying to get a toy out of a container and requesting help from Actor B. Actor B either helped or didn't.

After the sessions, both actors offered a piece of food to the monkeys. While monkeys always took food from the helpful human (and the one who needed help), they often rejected food from the unhelpful guy.

The monkeys also knew the difference between humans who were just too distracted to help and those who are just plain mean.

Commenters on Reddit immediately tried to apply this knowledge to picking up chicks.

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Man Wanted in Brooklyn Hit-Run Still Hasn't Turned Himself In UPDATE: He's Arrested

Photo: DCPI

Ex-con Julio Acevedo, wanted for allegedly leaving the scene of the horrific accident that killed Raizy and Nathan Glauber and their unborn child on Sunday, hadn't turned himself in by late Tuesday night.

Acevedo had told a friend he intended to surrender to the police but feared going to back to prison, this time “for life,” according to the NY Times.

Acevedo was driving a "hot" BMW at 60 mph in a 30 mph zone in Williamsburg when he smashed into the back of the couple's cab, killing both parents. The baby survived just a short while.

UPDATE: Acevedo was returned to New York from Pennsylvania on Thursday and charged with three felony counts of criminally negligent homicide.

According to the NY Times, he was charged with criminally negligent homicide, as well as leaving the scene, excessive speed, assault and reckless driving, and the judge ordered him held without bail.

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Brooklyn Public Library Moving to Wrap Up Sale of Heights Branch Quickly

Photo: Google Maps

Seems we just heard about the "possibility" of the sale of the Brooklyn Heights branch library site to a private developer.

Now we hear that the Brooklyn Public Library is trying to move this thing along "before the end of this administration." (Brooklyn Eagle)

In its rush to pick up some desperately-needed funds (let's not forget Mayor Bloomberg's yearly panic-inducing budget proposals), BPL seems to be ignoring other possibilities for the Heights branch as well as the Business Library (being moved to the business backwaters of Prospect Heights but no doubt soon to be forgotten).

Several ideas dismissed at last Thursday's steering committee meeting, the Eagle reports, include leasing the land to a developer instead of selling it outright, asking a philanthropist to donate funds to fix the air conditioner, or looking into alternate cooling solutions such as the “green roof” Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez facilitated in Red Hook.
More here.

Previous posts:
- Tough Crowd at Brooklyn Heights Library Meeting
- Brooklyn Heights Business Library Moving to Prospect Heights; Building May Be Sold to Developer
- Brooklyn Heights Library Closed Again
- Brooklyn Public Library Funding Restored, Bloomberg's Phony Crisis Averted

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Little Houses, Real Clowns and More Brooklyn Briefs

- This couple's shipping container house in Williamsburg is probably nicer than your apartment. DNAinfo

- An employment center completely destroyed by Hurricane Sandy was rebuilt by immigrants who congregate there to find day jobs. Brooklyn Eagle

- You can meet real clowns from the circus at Applebees tonight. Sheepshead Bites 

- Outed: A stretch of Crown Heights has been masquerading as Prospect Heights. DNAinfo 

- Sequester will slash $3 billion from Sandy aid package. Bensonhurst Bean

- Quite the to-do for Eric Adams on the steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall on Sunday. Brooklyn Eagle 

- New York homeless shelters had a banner winter. NY Magazine

- 13 adorably teeny tiny houses. Gizmodo 

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Was There a Drone Flying Over Brooklyn Monday? UPDATED

Drone by Pasukaru76

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a report from a pilot of an Alitalia passenger jet who says he saw an unmanned aircraft while landing at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York.

"We saw a drone, a drone aircraft," the pilot can be heard telling controllers on radio calls captured by the website LiveATC.net.

More at CNN.

UPDATE: An eye witness account is published in Animal New York.

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That's a Wrap: 'Boardwalk Empire' Packs Up in Brooklyn Heights

Photo: MK Metz, McBrooklyn

HBO’s award-winning “Boardwalk Empire" (starring Steve Buscemi) was filming in Brooklyn Heights last week in several locations, including on Montague Street and Monroe Place.

Above, one of the more synthetic actors is about to be packed up after a long day of filming at the Unitarian church and in front of the courthouse on Monroe Place.

The show will also be filming at Steiner Studios at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

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Walentas New Domino Sugar Factory Plan Dramatic Improvement to CPC Plan on Williamsburg Waterfront

Two Trees' plan for the Domino Sugar Refinery site in Williamsburg. Courtesy of ShoP Architects

A dramatic skyline with unusually designed "open" buildings could rise at the old Domino Sugar Factory site in Williamsburg, part of a new plan for the Brooklyn waterfront which will add more green space, recreational facilities and an office building to older plans for a residential development on the site.

Two Trees Management, which bought the old factory site from Community Preservation Corp. (CPC), told reporters on Friday they were dissatisfied with the small amount of green waterfront space in the original plans.

Original Community Preservation Corp. plan. Rafael Vinoly

The new design opens the solid wall (shown above) originally planned for the site.

The Two Trees plan will increase the waterfront park and improve access by extending the street grid right into the park. One of the high-rise buildings slated to be built by CPC would be removed and replaced by a public “Domino Square.” Retail spaces will target small, local retailers and not big-box stores, Jed Walentas, principal for Two Trees told the Brooklyn Eagle.

And while the previous proposal had the affordable-housing units in a separate building, further away from the waterfront, Two Trees plans to integrate them with the market-rate units in the same buildings.

The new plan will also include an elementary school, as well as a YMCA.

Because the plan has been substantially revised, it will have to go again through the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Process (ULURP).

Justin Davidson writes in New York Magazine, "It’s hard to argue that [Walentas'] motivator is greed, since the new proposal whittles away some market-rate apartments, keeps all the affordable units, adds less-profitable offices, shuts out megaretailers in favor of small stores, and increases the open public space by almost 60 percent. Maybe Walentas really wants what he says he wants: a round-the-clock New Dumbo."

UPDATE: Here are some negative thoughts on the proposed development. TRD

Previous posts:
- Walentas To Pay $185M for Domino Sugar Site
- Holding a Bake Sale to Save Domino Sugar Plant


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Expectant Parents Killed on Way to LICH ; UPDATE: Baby Dies, Cops Hunt for Julio Acevedo

Kent Ave. and Wilson St. Google Maps

Tragedy struck a young Hasidic couple on their way to Long Island College Hospital (LICH) in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn early Sunday morning.

A hit-and-run BMW driver traveling 60 mph on a 30 mph stretch smashed into the back of their cab, killing both parents. While doctors delivered the baby by emergency C-section (and initially thought it would survive), sadly, the baby died as well.

Nachman and Raizel Glauber, both 21, died on Wilson St. at Kent Ave. The driver and passenger of the BMW fled on foot.

The Brooklyn Eagle reports that the Glaubers were mourned by at least 1,000 people at a funeral outside the Congregation Yetev Lev D'Satmar synagogue.

More at the Daily News and CNN.

UPDATE:Police are searching for ex-con Julio Acevedo, arrested on drunken-driving charges about two weeks ago. According to the NY Daily News, Acevedo has a long rap sheet, including an eight-year stretch in prison for shooting a man to death in Brooklyn in 1987.

A reward is offered for his capture.

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Former Brooklyn Boro President Howie Golden Backs Sen. Eric Adams for BP

By Brooklyn-USA

Former Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden will join dozens of other elected officials on the steps of Borough Hall on Sunday to back Senator Eric Adams (D-Crown Heights) in his bid to succeed Marty Markowitz as borough president.

Golden served from 1977 to December 31, 2001.

By Adams campaign

The popular Adams has been the perceived front-runner in the race since City Councilman Domenic Recchia (D-Coney Island) dropped out last month.


Sen. Adams represents District 20 in Brooklyn. Have you ever seen a map of the redrawn District 20? Check this out:

The convoluted, gerrymandered district is shaped like the Big Dipper (also called the Drinkin' Gourd).

From Mr. Curtin's Classroom

Common Cause has drawn up a less cynical district map so we know it is possible.
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Don't Forget to Register Your Kid for Kindergarten Today

Because today is the last day New York City will accept your kindergarten application for September 2013. Here's the link to the NYC Dept. of Education Kindergarten Application page.

The Brooklyn Eagle says that a growing number of private school parents are holding their kids back until they're older. Some even hold off kindergarten until their kids are 6 – a practice called “redshirting” -- to give their kids an edge.

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